News&Features 5

Maddalena Ventura with Her Husband and Son. Oil painting by Jusepe de
Ribera, 1631. PHoro couRTESY OF ARTSY

Portrait of Rrose Sélavy. Photograph by Man Ray, 1921. PHOTO CouRTESY OF ARTSY

Examples over the decades

hroughout history, the
concepts of gender and
traditional representations

of masculinity and femininity have
been explored by a variety of artists.

@ Maddalena Ventura with Her
Husband and Son

Oil painting by Jusepe de Ribera,
1631.

One of Ribera’s famous works
is an oil painting more commonly
referred to as The Bearded Lady.
Maddalena Ventura was a mother
to three grown boys but the paint-
ing has her breast exposed, feed-
ing a baby. She is known for having
masculine features and a beard, but
Ribera represents her femininity by

depicting her breastfeeding.

@ Sleeping Hermaphroditos
Greek marble sculpture by

unknown artist, date unknown.

This sculpture of the mythical
figure Hermaphroditos, the son of
the Greek gods Hermes and Aphro-
dite, was discovered in the early 17th
century. It is believed to be an imita-
tion of an earlier bronze piece by
Polycles, an Ancient Greek sculp-
tor. When Hermaproditos rejected
a nymph named Salmacis, she asked
the god Zeus to merge their two
bodies together. This is where the
meaning of the word hermaphro-
dite comes from. The marble statue
depicts the fused form with male
genitalia and female curves.

@ Princess X
Bronze sculpture by Constantin

Brancusi, 1915-1916

Much controversy has surrounded
Princess X since its creation. Many
would say that at first glance the
sculpture looks like an erect penis
and testicles. Brancusi denied it,
identifying it as a reflection of female
vanity for when looking at it from an
angle, it appears to take on a different
form, with an oval head, a long neck
and breasts.

™ Portrait of Rrose Sélavy
Photograph by Man Ray, 1921.

Rrose Sélavy is one of many alter
egos of painter and sculptor Marcel
Duchamp. In 1921, Duchamp posed
as Rrose Sélavy for Ray for a series of
photographs. In most of the photos
taken, Sélavy is seen as glamorous
and attractive but this photo allows
Duchamp's masculine features to
come through, such as his large nose
and long chin.

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Sleeping Hermaphroditos. Greek marble sculpture by unknown artist, date unknown. PH07T0 couRTESY oF ARTSY

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Princess X. Bronze sculpture by Constantin Brancusi, 1915-1916. PHOTO
COURTESY OF ARTSY

Princess X sculpture seen from another angle. PHOTO COURTESY OF WIKIART

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