Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index

Painted in the second half of the fifteenth century, Love Magic is by an unknown Rhenish artist. The painting is oil and tempera on wood, and currently resides in the Museum der Bildenden Künste, in Leipzig. Though the scene was long thought to portray a female folk ritual for finding love, recent scholars suggest that Love Magic connects with late medieval beliefs concerning the power of women, magic and women’s privacy.

This work depicts a young woman, completely nude aside from a strip of fabric and wooden pattens on her feet, as she drops water and sparks into a chest containing a large red heart. About the room float five blank, scrolling pieces of paper. They align with the heart, woman, the young man in the background, parakeet and dog. The scrolls may have been included to create an air of intrigue. To the right of the panel are the dog and parakeet, while a fire is lit in the fireplace to the left. The background of the painting has become obscured, but it is possible to make out shelving with different objects on it. Behind her, the young man has entered the doorway and stands gazing at her. Presumably it is his heart that lies in the casket and receives the streams of sparks and water, demonstrating that only the beloved can cool the flames of love.

The painting likely refers to the Power of Women topos, the idea that women had control over men through their sexuality and could humiliate and destroy them. Witness the story of Delilah and Samson as well as the way in which Phyllis makes a fool of Aristotle. Women, moreover, were considered especially prone to enacting feminine "love magic" by which they could manipulate men's desires. This reversal of roles threatened the gendered power balance by granting women dominance.

Changes in the late medieval period led to a new idea of privacy that had previously been unavailable to the majority of the population. Along with women's newfound domestic spaces for privacy came a rise in male voyeurism into those feminine spaces. Men were anxious about what women might be doing. A desire for privacy was seen as suspicious and secretive. It was ultimately tied to magic and mischief due to the idea that such activities were practiced in secret and alone.

Given the broader context of the power of women, magic and women's privacy, what specific meaning/s did the painting covey to viewers? In recent years Dechant has argued that the scene with its many objects is intended to be ambiguous. In his view it presents the viewer with a fascinating mystery involving women's sexuality rather than a puzzle to be decoded. Wolfthal underlines the artist's naturalism in the representation of flowers, sparks and water droplets, suggesting that the painting captures a powerful erotic vision by including many realistic details.