Description:
Folktale; the power of Women; history; group of people; crowd in foreground; Virgil; poet; man hanging in basket alongside a building; outdoors
Label Text:
Weibermacht (The Power of Women)
Ancient texts like the Bible and the Greek classics offer many colorful stories featuring strong independent women. Many of these archaic stories were reinterpreted in later centuries when meanings might be changed to suit the sensibilities of the era. As women came to be cast in more powerful roles during the Northern European Renaissance, the subject of “the Power of Women” (in German, Weibermacht) arose as a popular theme in prints and literature. These prints were created in part to amuse the audience with the “silly idea” of role reversals; however, darker misogynistic agendas were clearly also in play.
This print was inspired by the French medieval fable about the elderly poet Virgil who fell in love with the beautiful emperor’s daughter and developed the deluded idea that she fancied him. To teach him a lesson she lowered a basket for him to gain access to her bedroom. Virgil never reached her window but was left suspended for all to see and mock.
One of the most important Dutch engravers, Lucas van Leyden, loved these somewhat saucy subjects which emphasized in particular the power of female sexuality. The story of Virgil suspended in a basket was a popular subject in the Weibermacht series. Van Leyden took a theatrical approach, placing an animated audience in the foreground and the staged scene in the far background. By highlighting the gossiping onlookers he places us, the viewers, among them. (hkdv 2017 cabinet label)
Subjects:
Engraving Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=SC+1957.16 |
