Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index

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Click to view high resolution image Title: Angry Wife Creator: Description: This image is meant to evoke the carnivalesque in its depiction of a wife beating her husband with her distaff. As a symbol of industrious feminine virtue, the irony of this tool being used to beat a husband into submission would not have been lost on the viewer. To underscore the unnatural quality of such a relationship between man and woman, a demon hovers behind and watches with glee. The woman's breasts burst from her bodice revealing her erect nipples. She grabs her husband forcefully by the wrist and places her foot over his to prevent him from reaching the pants on the ground before them. These pants symbolize traditional male dominance. The wife's use of physical force, her denial of the distaff's traditional significance, and the baring of her breasts exhibit a desire for dominance that defies traditional conventions of femininity. Source: Wikimedia Commons Rights: Public Domain Subject (See Also): Carnivalesque Clothing Devil Distaffs Domestic Abuse Gender Reversal Misogyny Violence Virile Women Geographic Area: Germany Century: 15 Date: ca. 1495-1503 Related Work: Current Location: Chicago, The Art Institute, 1956.850 Original Location: Artistic Type (Category): Digital images; Prints Artistic Type (Material/Technique): Engravings Donor: Height/Width/Length(cm): 168cm/109cm/ Inscription: Related Resources: Bartsch VI.268.173; Geisberg 406; Hollstein XXIV.504; Lehrs IX.504

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