Disparate Femenino (Feminine Folly) by Francisco Goya (Interpretation and Analysis)

-
Disparate Femenino
Source: Museo Prado

If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time, you probably know that Francisco Goya is my favorite artist. Goya is famous for his many prints, and his print series Los Disparates is perhaps his most enigmatic and interesting of all the series he produced.

Disparate Femenino (which translates as Feminine Folly) is usually considered to be the first print in this series. It depicts a group of women tossing two dolls in the air while a man and a donkey lay in the blanket. The print is similar to a tapestry cartoon (a painting created as a model for a textile tapestry) that Goya created nearly twenty years before.

The tapestry cartoon, entitled The Straw Manikin, depicts four women tossing a manikin in a blanket, referencing a popular carnival game. However, there are deeper implications here. As the Prado Museum notes, “its carnival origins are visible in the use of masks and joking, but the blanket-tossing of a doll is used here by Goya as a clear allegory of women’s domination of men.”

In Disparate Femenino these undertones emerge more clearly. This print has a distinctly sinister aura. The women’s expressions are difficult to read, but lack the open joviality seen in The Straw Manikin. As the Prado Museum explains, Disparate Femenino could be an allegory of the relationship between men and women. However, in the context of Los Disparates, the print also takes on supernatural connotations. Throughout the history of European culture, women have been traditionally regarded as the harbingers or shapers of fate, from the three Fates of Greek mythology to the Norns of Norse mythology. Goya’s Disparate Femenino can be read as one such mystical representation of the arbitrary currents that shape all human lives. 

The Straw Manikin
Source: Museo Prado

Disclaimer: I’m not an art historian or an expert on this topic. The above is my opinion, based on my interpretation of my foreknowledge of art and history. If I’ve done any additional research, I’ll note it above.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Le Chat Aux Poissons Rouges by Henri Matisse (Interpretation and Analysis)

-
Image
Le Chat Aux Poissons Rouges Source: Pinterest French artist Henri Matisse is rather famous for his paintings of goldfish. In fact, one of his most famous paintings, entitled Goldfish , depicts several of the aforementioned fish swimming in a bowl. Matisse is one of the most famous artists of the twentieth century. His work is closely associated with the Fauvist movement and is generally characterized by great energy and rich, intense colors. Based on my research , Matisse began painting goldfish after he traveled to North Africa. In Morocco, Matisse observed locals watching goldfish swim in their bowls as they sunk into a meditative state. The fish subsequently became a symbol for this sense of tranquility, coming to represent an idyllic version of the world only accessible through joyous day-dreams. These calming fish are prominent in this painting, which is entitled Le Chat Aux Poissons Rouges (which translates to The Cat With Red Fishes ). However, the serene energy of the fish
Read more

Five Puerto Rican Artists You Should Know

-
Image
The island of Puerto Rico has a long and vibrant artistic tradition. Western, Indigenous, and African cultures have all left their mark on Puerto Rican art, creating a colorful and unique visual legacy. While Puerto Rican artists have demonstrated their excellence throughout the years— from the creators of the captivating Taino petroglyphs to the sophisticated and subtle works of the Modernist painters—Puerto Rican art has received little attention from art historians and the wider art world. Here are five underappreciated Puerto Rican artists that you should know: 1. José Campeche José Campeche is often known as the first Puerto Rican painter in the Western history of fine arts. He was primarily known for his religious paintings and his portraits of elite Puerto Ricans, and today his work is recognized as some of the finest examples of Rococo art produced in the Americas. Campeche’s personal story is also inspiring. The son of a slave who had purchased his own freedom, Campech
Read more

Mural La Plena by Rafael Tufiño (Interpretation and Analysis)

-
Image
Mural la Plena Source: Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico Today I want to chat about a monumental piece of art that I recently had the pleasure of seeing at the Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico. As the name suggests, Mural La Plena is a massive mural, fifteen by thirty feet in size, that was created by Puerto Rican artist Rafael Tufiño to commemorate la plena, a wildly popular genre of music that was born in the city of Ponce around 1900. The mural, which might appear abstract or incomprehensible to a viewer unfamiliar with the subject matter, illustrates the lyrics of popular plena songs. For example, the blue-green figure that dominates the upper half of the mural represents the hurricane from the plena “Temporal,” which mourns the destruction caused by a storm. Plena, as a genre, tells stories. According to my research , the lyrics come from current events, re-telling the stories that affected the lives of the people of Ponce. It began as a way for people of low socio-economic sta
Read more