The title of this painting is simply "Bearded Woman" and is from the year 1631. The painting is now in the permanent collection of the Museo de Tavera in Toledo. The subjects were husband and wife, Felix and Magdalena Ventura. Even before the painting, Magdalena Ventura was famous. She was not really from Naples, but rather from somewhere in the nearby Abruzzi. She was already a grown woman with several children before her beard started to grow in thick and full like a man's beard. When the Duke of Alcala, the Spanish viceroy of Naples at the time, heard about her, he invited her to come into the big city and sit for a painting by de Ribera, the Duke's own court artist and one of the leading painters of the time. Magdalena's fame spread such that she was mentioned in court correspondence throughout Italy...Presumably the lady developed an androgen-secreting ovarian tumor.
The beard's odd, but I really want to know why she has an extra breast growing out of her clavicle.
ReplyDeleteForget the beard and the breast - why does she have the facial architecture of a man? At this point I'm guessing she was a hermaphrodite, just not evidenced genitally (or perhaps it was... I'm guessing nobody thought to ask).
ReplyDeleteI think that her face would appear normal -for an older woman with no makeup- if not for the beard. My guess is that the breast was added to show she is female, and the baby was added to explain the exposed breast. Really, her husband appears elderly.
ReplyDeleteThis article was taken, without attribution unfortunately, from the delightful "Encyclopedia of Naples" done by Prof. Jeff Matthews who has lived in Naples, Italy with his wife for the past 35 years. He teaches at the u of Napoli. Go to this link below and you will get the whole story on this, and zillions of other oddities from the ancient city of Naples! You will love his site!
ReplyDeletehttp://faculty.ed.umuc.edu/~jmatthew/naples/beard.htm
Sorry, I only now noticed that the underlined text in the article is, in fact, a click-able link to Jeff's site.
ReplyDeleteIn any case, all your questions in the comments here are answered in Jeff's typically humorous style!
It is odd that the painter depicted her so similarly to that of a masculin face. It also appears that the forehead has been extended and the hair covered, making her look more like a mature male. The eyebrows are also extremely bushy and thick. This could almost be a joke on someone or a satire, as the breast is very unnatural in placement as well.
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