While art is one of the most reliable recorders of our past, it can also help us understand the drives and obsessions of those who depict it. But art can also be deceiving, and say more than it appears at a first glance. That’s the case of the paintings of Theodore Gericault, an important and influential artist who used his art to study the human condition. One of his most important series Les Monomanes depicts those suffering from mental illnesses, paying close attention to their features. However, sometimes his curiosity went a tad too far, in his famous Raft of the Medusa he actually bought and borrowed corpses and limbs from morgues and hospitals to create the perfect depiction of the human body and its movements.
Just as Gericault’s painting, there are many others that either hide a dark story or depict a grim moment in history. Since we tend to conceive art as beautiful and wondrous, sometimes we miss these horrid deeds. Here below is a selection of 6 paintings that somehow manage to portray the dark side of sexuality and its consequences. Enjoy!
Judith Slaying Holofernes – Artemisia Gentileschi (1614-20)
Popularly known as the “Female Caravaggio,” Gentileschi is one of the most daring women in art’s history. After being raped, Gentileschi (with the help of her father) accused the abuser and took him to trial. Naturally, at the time it was unusual for a woman to accuse a man, so no one wanted to support her claims. She endured countless humiliations because they thought she was lying to take advantage of her abuser, who was also a famous painter and teacher. However, she did not give up and endured everything to prove she was saying the truth. After the trial, Gentileschi moved and devoted her life to her craft, creating some of the most perplexing scenes in art history. In this particular painting, she’s depicting the story of Judith when she killed Holofernes to save her people from his army’s siege. But the painting shows something more: it’s actually a self-portrait of Gentileschi beheading Tassi, the man who abused her.
The Rape of the Sabine Women – Nicolas Poussin (1634-35)
Celebrated for his paintings of mythological and biblical scenarios, Poussin was a famous French painter who became the official royal artist in the court of Louis XIII. This scene belongs to Roman mythology. The story says that when Romulus founded Rome, most of his followers were actually men. In order to populate his new land, the Romans tried to make a deal with the Sabines, a town nearby, but they refused the offer and forbade their women from marrying Roman citizens. Displeased with this decision, the newly minted Romans organized a massive celebration in which many of the neighboring towns attended. To take advantage of the festivities and mayhem, the men went after the women of Sabine and abducted them.
The Medical Inspection – Henri Toulouse-Lautrec (1894)
Belonging to the late Impressionist avant-garde movement, Toulouse Lautrec’s work is characterized by its spontaneity. Most of his paintings portray prostitutes he knew while he lived in a brothel in Paris. What makes Lautrec’s paintings so interesting and appealing is that fact that he depicted these women as they were, without judgment.Here we see two women waiting in the line for their mandatory STD examination. At the time syphilis was considered an epidemic, and brothels, which were controlled by the government, had to carry out these tests once every two weeks.
Lot and his Daughters – Peter Paul Rubens (1613-14)
This might look like a common scene from a myth in which a man is enjoying the pleasures of his concubines. But actually, Rubens is presenting one of the most disturbing scenes from the Bible. Being forced to flee Sodom, Lot and his daughters hide in a cave far away from people. Noticing that they will never meet anyone else and that they should continue their dynasty, both women get their father drunk and have sex with him.
Interior – Edgar Degas (1868-69)
Well, this painting looks creepy just by looking at it. This scene is said to be inspired by Emile Zola’s novel Thérèse Raquin. Thérèse is an orphan who is forced to marry her very unpleasant cousin. She soon meets Laurent, one of his husband’s friends, and they begin a passionate affair. Soon the couple conspire to get rid of Camille, her husband, and they drown him. Everyone believes it was an accident, but soon the guilt starts to torment the couple and each decides to end their own lives. Others claim it’s actually an adaptation of a lithography by Paul Gavarni, an artist Degas admired, where he depicts the life of a prostitute.
Portrait of Gerard de Lairesse – Rembrandt van Rijn (1665-67)
Gerard de Lairesse was a Dutch painter and a contemporary of Rembrandt, who wrote some of the most important treaties and art theories. Besides being a portrait to honor a great painter and academic, it also shows symptoms of syphilis, a disease he had inherited. It can be appreciated in his features, especially in the deformity of his nose, also known as saddle nose.
Art can have so many interpretations and backstories. Sometimes the story can be as intriguing, macabre, and dark as the painting itself.
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