Throughout this entire semester, there are three pictures I have become fascinated with and I just can’t put my finger on why I am so mesmerized by them. All three of these paintings are by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and all are portraits of a single female. Is it their face, clothing, the colors, their expression, or all combined into one? The questions are endless, and these exquisite paintings depict the female in the eye’s of the male gaze, but are also exceptionally iconic. Monna Vanna, Monna Rosa, and Water Willow all grasp my attention and fascination in an unexplainable way and I wonder if others have the same reaction.
As I look at them more in depth, I think I am most fascinated with their delicate features as in Water Willow, but most intrigued by the fashion and decorative elements in Monna Vanna and Monna Rosa. While the gowns in both of Rossetti’s Monna’s look extremely similar, the masses of wavy red hair, elaborate dress, flawless fur, and captivating jewels make Monna Vanna a more ornate image than Monna Rosa, whose only difference in color comes from the china vase. Although we have spent many classes discussing the male gaze, women as other, pleasure in looking, and women as something beautiful and desirable, I think maybe Rossetti just wanted to create jaw-dropping images of beautiful women, which were not just intended for the male gaze. In this time, as in the current moment, all women of especially the upper class strived to be well known, the most beautiful, or best dressed, but only a small fraction of women during this time actually rendered this reality, and would have loved to see these gorgeously rendered women.
In the article we read by Griselda Pollock entitled, “Women as Sign: Psychoanalytic Readings, Vision and Difference: Femininity, Feminism and the History of Art, 1988,” we see Pollock explore ideas of women as visibly different, a fantasy, and a sign of masculine desire. Pollock is trying to answer the question, ‘Why did women become equated with beauty – and why are men and women portrayed as polar opposites?’ One of my favorite points by Pollock is when she talks about women having power, since they attract men and create emotions, which is in itself powerful. However, this does not mean that females can’t have their own gaze as they look at these three portraits, or any of Rossetti’s female portraits, and also have an emotional reaction. It would not be then because the paintings are of women, but because they are each beautiful and distinctive in their own individual way. The female as other is consistently discussed, and even in my Shakespeare class my Professor quoted Aristotle who believed that women were inferior to men, and that a woman is an imperfect man. Why did men have such strong views about women? Were they intimidated, or just didn’t know enough about the opposite sex to understand that males and females are different but we all are still human beings?
Since male figures dominated the art world at this time, it always makes me wonder what it would have been like in this era if the roles had been reversed. What if Hunt, Rossetti, and Millais all were painting portraits of individual males as well, or just males and not females? Would the reactions and or controversies be different and why? These gender stereotypes have been around for eternity, and even right now, in our modern day society, we still cannot get rid of them. Constantly in the news there are headlines regarding women and equal pay, the first woman CEO, and numerous celebrities voicing their options on feminism, so will gender stereotypes ever change? Rossetti painted these stunning portraits for a reason, and I believe that all paintings should be for a male and female gaze because women are beautiful, but so are men. Rossetti just enhanced what one could maybe call the male gaze in painting, but these women in Monna Vanna, Monna Rosa, and Water Willow are glamorously portrayed, and everyone around the world should be able to see and appreciate that – not just men.
Works Cited:
Pollock, Griselda. Women as Sign: Psychoanalytic Readings, Vision and Difference: Femininity, Feminism and the History of Art. 1988.
Image Sources: Wikimedia, Tate Britain
I think you bring up a pivotal question that Pollock asks of us. Why do men depict women as the desire for the male gaze? Why is it women and not men? This idea you brought up made me think of classical Greek and Roman art where males were constantly depicted in sculpture, etc. In class we discussed how there was a sudden switch of male artists perfecting the male body through painting and sculpture to exhibit power, strength, and success via the male figure. In this period, there was a change to gazing upon the female body where the male gaze is a power upon the women that are depicted. The women are suddenly depicted as beautiful, perfect, and occasionally powerful through knowledge in Pre-Raphaelite paintings, but I do think this new figure suggests the power of the male gaze upon a woman's body. Overall, your entry made me think of this change in art from depicting the male body to the female body for the male gaze, and I think the suggestion of why are we not depicting men in just as a desirable way is an interesting idea to examine since it did exist, but disappeared during this time.
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