Women power

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The woodcut "Weibermacht" (1513) by Hans Baldung Grien, Phyllis rides Aristotle

The term women's power denotes a motif in art and cultural history. The subject describes the triumph of a woman (and her erotic power) and love over man. Men can be led into love follies in poetry. Particularly powerful, wise, strong and beautiful men lose self-control, virtue, domination or even their lives (in works by Frauenlob , Reinmar von Zweter , Hugo von Montfort and others). In the criticism of the conditions of court society (“wibes mastersschaft”, Freidank ) the woman is seen as a symbol of lust (Luxuria), she seduces to “world minne ” and distracts from the “divine love”.

Motifs

In the courtly environment, the motif has appeared in differentiated versions since the high Middle Ages. The materials for this come from all times, so the Old Testament stands next to fairy tale literature, novella literature, legends and ancient mythology:

Also as connections with:

Occurrence

Samson and Delilah, Tallinn City Hall
Hercules at Omphale , Hercules does women's work, Lucas Cranach the Elder

In printmaking in particular, there are individual representations in series, although there is no canon. Places and contexts of representations are very different. As architectural jewelry can be found u. a. Representations on the Cathedral of Lyon , the Cathedral of Rouen and the Cathedral of Auxerre . Representations can also be found on French, Dutch and German choir stalls. Town hall furnishings also show depictions of women’s power, so u. a. in the town hall of San Gimignano , in the old town hall in Regensburg , in the town hall in Lübeck , in the town hall in Cologne , in the town hall in Döbeln and in the town hall of Tallinn . The public interest in the subject from 14. – 16. Century shows z. B. the house zur Kunkel in Constance with its interior. The courtly handicrafts not only produced small sculptures such as aquamaniles and minne boxes, but also tapestries and stained glass. There are also drawings on everyday objects.

theory

In social plans of the aristocracy, such as in De amore by Andreas Capellanus , in the women's book (among others) by Ulrich von Liechtenstein and in works by Dirc Potter, a distinction is made between “amor purus”, pure, lofty, true and sensible love and “amor mixtus “, The low, false and blind love. In doing so, love is rationalized. Characteristic of the courtly discourse about love are affect control and the spiritualization of instinct. This "pure love" is also evident in the utopian concept of the ministry that a devoted knight renders his mistress. In connection with this idea, the fabrics of women power represent the prime examples of "foolish love". Especially in the first half of the 16th century, depictions of the motif belong to the range of representative art at court, especially paintings by Cranach's workshop d.Ä .. The way in which love follies are depicted shows in the knightly tournament, the actual place of the love service, often a derogatory and ironic description of the concept of pure love in love service ( golden roof ). Margaret of Angoulême still defended pure love in 1558 in her posthumous work Heptaméron against male mockery. The prevailing unequal morality in the gender relationship between women and men is juxtaposed with the parodic reversal of roles in society. Allusions to gain in pleasure through loss of control or role reversal or even pointers to female erotic charisma can be found especially at weddings of princes. As a result of the Reformation, the role of women was reformulated. Leaflets that only adapted the motif satirized the search for a new hierarchy of partners in marriage. The humor was mostly at the expense of women.

graphic

The letter N (figure alphabet), A young woman hits the bare bottom of the monk kneeling in front of her with a stick, his tongue hanging out of his throat undignified., Master ES

Beginning in the second half of the 15th century, the subject spread in printmaking ( master ES , house book master , master MZ , Ambrosius Holbein , Mair von Landshut , Albrecht Altdorfer , Hans Baldung , Georg Pencz , Hans Sebald Beham ). The woodcut series by Hans Burgkmair and Lucas van Leyden deserve special mention. Dirck Volkertszoon Coornhert (after Maarten van Heemskerck ) and Philipp Galle made copper engravings with the motif. The Latin or Dutch texts, which are partly attached to the pictures, see lust, adultery etc. as vices of women.

Lists of women

Standing witch with monster , Hans Baldung

From 1500 women were made responsible for the sexual behavior of men and their self-discipline. Instinctuality and weak will, in the context of women's power, still projected onto men, were now ascribed to women. In the literary critique of estates, a shift in topic took place beforehand, from triumphant love to the opposition of good-pure woman to evil-sinful woman. Stories of women power have been reinterpreted as stories of women cunning. The women cunning wanted to deceive men and harm them, it could have an erotic aspect. In Narrenschiff at examples can be found for it. The term Weiberlist is one-sided negative connotation as "buler art" and "bulschaft", for example in chapter 13 "Von Buhlschaft" ("Venus with the straw rump"). Chapter 64, “Of Wicked Women,” tells of Salome and Medea. “Doctor Murners Fools' Weighting” and “Gauchmat” by Thomas Murner are further examples, as well as carnival games by Hans Sachs and Hans Folz . This is clearly related to the spread of a conjugal moral concept or a marriage model in moral didactic literature that appeared at the same time, especially at the time of the Reformation. In theological and moralistic treatises and texts ( Hexenhammer ) in the second half of the 15th century, the character of the witch became the archetype of wives' cunning. The witch as the epitome of the topos shows not only cunning, but also erotic power. However, this power appears not only in the positive form of seduction, but in enchantment, for example, also in negative form. Witches were accused of having hexed the male genitals away, thereby rendering the man impotent, or having hexed women sterile. Damaging spells are a particularly radical type of wives' list. The power of women emanating from witches is seen as particularly dangerous. It arises from demonology and comes from a pact with the devil. In the figure of the witch, different motifs of feminine power can interlock. Illustrative woodcuts in theological treatises serve to accuse the Inquisition and agitate for the persecution of witches ("Tractatus of the wicked women who are called witches", Ulrich Molitor ; Der neü Layenspiegel, Hans Schäufelin ). In the visual arts, witches serve as figures of wild people (Altdorfer), as an allegorical element in the “Upside Down World” (Dürer), they reflect erotic fictions and they serve male voyeurs in erotic acts. Combinations of different aspects of the power of women as a completely unacceptable exchange of gender roles are important in the redefinition of roles in the following centuries.

Women regiment

In contrast to women’s power, the “women regiment”, which has been used since the late Middle Ages as the “fight for pants”, describes the fight for rule in the house. The motive is often connected with the angry and beating woman. The term shows not only the fear of the physical attraction of women, but also of their dominant position as the woman of the house. Theologians have condemned this condition since the Middle Ages as a perversion of the divine order, i.e. a reversal of the gender order. Augustine called it the "dominum mulierum". The subject experienced its first climax in the literature of brutalism in the 16th century. The motif of the “upside down world” can also be related to the women's regiment. In polemical caricatures from 16-19. In the 20th century, the motif is placed in current contexts with the gender struggle. International power struggles of states have been allegorically represented with the motif since the 18th century.

See also

literature

  • EA Seemann: Weiberregiment, Weibermacht, Weiberlisten , Lexikon der Kunst, Volume 7, Leipzig 1994, pp. 739–740; Digital Library Volume 43: Lexicon of Art, pp. 37722–3
  • Kristina Bake: A new basket full of Venus children: the power of women on illustrated leaflets of the 16th and 17th centuries: from the holdings of the Grafisches Kabinett , Staatl. Galerie Moritzburg, Halle 2001, pp. 3–5
  • Jutta Held: The "power of women" in images of art from the early modern era to the beginning of the 20th century , in: Ursula Aumüller-Roske (Ed.): Frauenleben - Frauenbilder - Frauengeschichten , Centaurus, 1988, pp. 61–74
  • Susan Louise Smith: To women's wiles I fell ': the power of women topos and the development of medieval secular art , Ph. D. University of Pennsylvania, 1978
  • Valeska Doll: Couple portrayals with Hans Baldung Grien with special consideration of the women power issue especially with Phyllis and Aristotle and Adam and Eve portrayals , master thesis, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, 1995
  • Wolfgang Stammler: Aristoteles , Reallexikon zur Deutschen Kunstgeschichte I, 1936, pp. 1027-1040
  • Leopold Ettlinger: Ehebrecherfalle , Reallexikon zur Deutschen Kunstgeschichte IV, 1956, 786–791
  • András Vizkelety: Minneslaves , Lexicon of Christian Iconography, Volume 3, 1971, Col. 269
  • Friedrich Mauer: The topos of the minneslaves. On the history of a thematic community between fine arts and poetry in the Middle Ages , in: Deutsche Vierteljahresschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Geistesgeschichte, 27, 1953

Remarks

  1. ^ NH Ott: Aristoteles, D. Ikonographie , in: Lexikon des Mittelalters, Volume 1, Metzler, Stuttgart [1977] -1999, columns 947-948
  2. ↑ J. Engemann: Salomo, D. Ikonographie , in: Lexikon des Mittelalters, Volume 7, Metzler, Stuttgart [1977] -1999, column 1313-1314
  3. ^ NH Ott: Samson (Jewish. Heros), II. West , in: Lexikon des Mittelalters, Volume 7, Metzler, Stuttgart [1977] -1999, column 1345