What was the point of painting such hideous harridans?
Surely it wasn't a family portrait commissioned by some rich merchant?
Was it renaissance porn, designed to appeal to the prurient interest of gout-afflicted, wig-wearing horn-dogs?
Not all the wealthy folk back in the day were chubbies, but I take your point: same thing recently in India where fatness is a physical demonstration of wealth, i.e. "Look at me, I can afford to buy lots of food and you can't."
I'll post images of two of my favorite paintings featuring ladies that would be considered eminently fuckable by current standards, one by Vermeer (I just completed a fascinating quasi-fictional account about its creation, GIRL WITH PEARL EARRING by Tracy Chevalier), and Renoir's LUNCHEON OF THE BOATING PARTY.
To be fair, the subjects in the Renoir are people of privilege in the eighteenth century, whereas the subject in the Vermeer was claimed by Chevalier to be a maid in Vermeer's household in 17th-century Delft, Holland ...gotta think Vermeer banged her: I know I would.
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