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Erotic helplessness : a study of the history of the Damsel in Distress theme in art
- Thread starter coldturkey
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ducon007
Consul
Peony
Magistrate
I always wanted to be this girl from the first time i saw the picture as a teenager...Enjoy your leave!
That's what they said to this girl too.
me too!
Why? There is nothing unusual in this picture. Even the execution process itself is not shown, but only its anticipation... What is the masochistic magic of this picture?
Loxuru
Graf von Kreuzigung
Well, it is indeed in the anticipation. These replies tell it all :
Imigine being in the place of that young woman. Practically stripped naked, delivered to the executioners, and soon going to 'perform' before a crowd of hundreds of of greedy onlookers...me too!
That's exactly what Peony and I imagine.
Actually, the cover picture illustrates something only briefly mentioned in the book, and just as briefly in Mannix's source, Martial's De Spectaculis, just the fact that 'during the afternoon a woman was pulled apart by bulls'. The 'uniform', a sort of pussy-pelmet apron, along with cruelly ironic floral decorations, was (at least in Mannix's imagination) worn by lots of slavegirls picked for various entertaining displays during the day - earlier several had been in boats in a mock sea-battle. When the boats sank, the girls who couldn't swim drowned in the flooded arena - this one had presumably survived that, only to find herself being prepared for agonising dismemberment.
chinadoll
Executioner
oh hey cool i saw this one in real life!
and looking at art like these when i was still a student was kind of this big secret thing for me
"But M'lady, we must bathe you before you are beheaded in the square. You will want to look your best as the crowd watches them take your head!"
Well it's nice that she's looking happy, the men all look thoroughly pissed off!
See:
https://www.clio-online.de/webresource/id/webresource-1278
English translation of the abstract:
Excerpt from the Regulations for the Moral Punishment of Prostitutes, of the Elector Ott-Heinrich of Heidelberg, 1532.
"This source comes from the fragmentary notes of a judicial assistant named W. Reinhard, from whom a description of the punishments and conditions in a so-called "spinning house" appeared in the 18th century; it was written anonymously and, supposedly, distributed illegally and privately, to give impetus to the abolition of such regular practices. (Title of the text: "Lenchen in prison")..."
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ducon007
Consul
Thanks a lot!
See also here for other pics from this book:
