"Hidden Under a Bushel" by Hallie Cohen (watercolor 5'x12') |
"The Mona Lisa" was the subject of Freud’s essay on Da Vinci. You might be more inclined to Sargent’s "Madame X" with her majestic presence punctuated by the signature black gown. There has always been speculation about the model for Courbet’s “The Creation of the World." It was long held she was Whistler's mistress, but it is fairly certain she was Constance Queniaux, a member of the corps de ballet of the Paris Opera. Her wanton pose is a far cry from the Mona Lisa’s enigmatic smile. Is Lavinia Fontana’s “Young Noblewoman” a possible love interest for a male or female viewer? Was her moustache a message or cosmetically common for the time? In Hallie Cohen's "Hidden Under a Bushel" she looms as the dominating presence in the stark intersection at the top of Rome’s Gianicolo (a symbol of change and perhaps sexual or cultural transition). At the same time she disappears into the coffered ceiling atop the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls. This latter momentarily steals the spectator's attention in a dramatic perspectival sweep. Still Fontana’s subject maintains her poise as the center of the painter’s reality. What do you love someone for? Looks? Character? In this case character is subtly entwined with nobility to create qualities of mystery, equanimity and grace.
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