Sexual Perspectives in Dutch Baroque Art

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the dramatically different way in which male and female artists portray the same act - an 'indecent proposal' of money for sexual favors. To facilitate the comparison, artists are all Dutch painters active in the 1600s. Judith Leyster's "The Proposition" is used as the key female illustration of an indecent proposal, while a number of her male contemporaries (Baburen, Honthorst, Molenaer, Ter Borch, Vermeer) are examined for the male perspective.

From the Paper:

In 1893, during a cleaning of The Jolly Toper, a painting acquired by the Louvre as a Frans Hals, a curious discovery was made. In the lower corner of the work was the emblem "JLS?" - the monogram of the previously-unknown artist Judith Leyster (1609-1660) . Though highly regarded in her own 17th century Holland, Leyster's work had been essentially lost until this accidental discovery. Leyster shared the fate of many female artists, whose work is often lesser known and not as favorably regarded as that of their male contemporaries. Works within a genre made by male and female artists often demonstrate sharp differences in the way each sex portrays the subject matter. Comparing Judith Leyster's The Proposition with several other similar works by her male Dutch contemporaries readily illustrates this point.

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