Potiphar's Wife: Joseph's First Love
Potiphar’s wife as seen through the eyes of Guido Reni comes to life with her soft looking skin and tender face as she stares longingly up at Joseph. Then her figure falls back into the painting as her pale flesh tones coupled with swirling velvet garments around her body create a surreal setting. She is at once real and unreal. Her features are relaxed, but her intentions are aggressive. Potiphar’s wife embodies the mystery Reni saw in women, capable of being at once threatening and innocent.
Joseph, like Reni, is both opposed to Potiphar’s wife and at the same time his eyes linger on her face in an expression of unspoken desire. When she first asks Joseph to lie with her Joseph doesn’t drawback because he thinks Potiphar’s wife is ugly to look upon, or has had her sexuality tainted by another man. Instead it is Joseph’s fear of Potiphar’s wrath that holds Joseph back. He claims that Potiphar “...neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?(Genesis39:9).” However, just as Joseph’s figure lingers in shadow in Reni’s painting, so too do Joseph’s true feelings remain cloaked behind his words and actions. “...as she spake to Joseph day by day...to lie by her...it came to pass about this time, that Joseph went into the house to do his business; and there was none of the men of the house there within(Genesis39:10-11).” If Joseph is capable of running a prosperous plantation in his master’s absence, and has shown the ability to turn the disadvantage of being a slave into a better life as chief overseer, why does he foolishly fall into Potiphar’s wife’s trap? The answer is that he knows full well that entering into his master’s home will result in another encounter with Potiphar’s wife, and another offer to lie in her bed. His excuse is that he has business to conduct, but as the overseer of the master’s homestead there is no shortage of men below him that he could send to do business up at the master’s house. Instead Joseph repeatedly returns to Potiphar’s wife, denying her advances, but at the same time aroused by her flirtations.
In their final rendezvous Potiphar’s wife reaches out for Joseph’s garments and snags them in her hand.
“Confronted by the expressive, powerful or victimized images of Gentileschi’s women, writers have been unable to fit her paintings into the usual feminine stereotype: they cannot trace the expected signs of femininity, weakness, gracefulness or delicateness. Thus, unable to put her work into a stereotype, they turn instead to the dramatic events of her life” (10)
The 19th and 20th century bourgeois family relations were controlled by sex-role divisions. The husband remained to be the dominant figure in the family, providing for the family through work. The wife, thought to be weaker and less rational, was to concern herself with the home and raising the children with the “utmost attention.”22 This new degree of intimacy, however, is not shown by Degas in The Belleli Family, where Mme. Belleli, despite wrapping an arm around her daughter, remains cold and emotionless. In Interior with Two People, Degas paints the family home to be full of warmth and affection, yet, ironically the two people do not express such emotions. Ironically, in Name Day of the Madam, Degas paints a “family atmosphere,” which is “
Many stories talk about relationships, especially the ones between man and woman as couple. In some of them, generally the most popular ones, these relationships are presented in a rosy, sentimental and cliché way. In others, they are presented using a much deeper, realistic and complicated tone; much more of how they are in real life. But not matter in what style the author presents its work, the base of every love story is the role each member of that relationship assumes in it. A role, that sometimes, internal forces will determinate them, such as: ideas, beliefs, interests, etc. or in order cases external, such as society. In the story “The Storm” by American writer Kate Chopin and the play A Doll’s house by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen I am going to examine those roles, giving a special focus to the woman´s, because in both works, it is non-traditional, different and somewhat shocking, besides having a feminist point of view.
The “Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin and ‘”The Hand” by Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette are similar in theme and setting. Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette and Kate Chopin create the theme of obligatory love and the unhappiness it entails. Both stories illustrate the concealed emotions many women feel in their marriage yet fail to express them. The two stories take place in a sacred room of the house and both transpire in a brief amount of time. The differences between the two stories are seen through the author’s choice of characters in each story. In “The story of an Hour” Kate Chopin involves other characters in Mrs. Mallard’s life, whereas, “The Hand” deals with marriage and togetherness and only involves the husband and wife. Symbolism is seen all throughout “The Hand” not so in ‘The Story of an Hour.” The similarities in “The Story of an Hour” and “The Hand” is portrayed in theme and setting. The differences are illustrated in the choice of characters involved in each story and the amount of symbolism depicted in the different stories.
The significant difference is two individuals in the portrait are males. On the other hand, it is rarely to see the portrait of father and son appearing in the same frame throughout the history of western art. In most of the portraits, fathers are serious and alone. In the 19th century France, women are concerned with the realms of their activities, men are free to go anywhere they want in the whole day. Based on Garb’s description, the theater is the few places women are able to go for entertainment. For the rest of their time, they have to stay in the private sphere because of conventional ideology. For the males in the patriarchal society, they are eager to exemplify their ambitions and masculinity in the public spaces. From their point of view, home is the assigned setting for women. Wives and children, sometimes, are equal to the tools of manifesting their power and social status.
Through the exploration of this diverse range portraiture, the contrasting ideals of masculine and feminine beauty in the Renaissance have been explored. Yet overall, no matter what the gender orientation of the subject, it the discovery of such passionate and artistic talent presented which is essentially ‘beautiful’. Consequently, the grand appeal of such glorious images is still appreciated today, and will continue to delight viewers for generations to come.
...s this shows her feminity as a women it also portrays her as being a temptress because of the exposure of her breast. Unlike the woman being almost completely covered but being shown in a tempting way in relation to her feminity, the man on the other side is completely exposed in order to demonstrate the youthfulness and strength of his body. Which the Romans used in artworks as a form of political advertising to show that a man that had a masculine body, young and strong, could be a leader. The man’s exposure of skin is considered as positive form of dispaying his masculinity while the woman’s lack of exposure except for her breast can be viewed as tempting through her feminity and disapproved. This shows the gender indiffernece of feminity and masculinity, where masculinity is portrayed in positive forms while femininity has only negative aspects to be protryed in.
Aristotle once claimed that, “The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance.” Artists, such as Louise-Elizabeth Vigée Le Brun and Mary Cassatt, captured not only the way things physically appeared on the outside, but also the emotions that were transpiring on the inside. A part no always visible to the viewer. While both artists, Le Brun and Cassatt, worked within the perimeters of their artistic cultures --the 18th century in which female artists were excluded and the 19th century, in which women were artistically limited-- they were able to capture the loving relationship between mother and child, but in works such as Marie Antoinette and Her Children and Mother Nursing her Child 1898,
Adèle Ratignolle uses art to beautify her home. Madame Ratignolle represents the ideal mother-woman (Bloom 119). Her chief concerns and interests are for her husband and children. She was society’s model of a woman’s role. Madame Ratignolle’s purpose for playing the pia...
The author tells the reader story of the teenage girl, who’s suffering from difficulties in the relationship with surrounding her people, such as her friends and wax copy of the president Roosevelt, – “the only man who has ever called her pretty” (Coyle 366). Through all the story the reader can be a witness of the violence against the girl, for example, when Franklyn D. Roosevelt makes her cry for no reason (“She’s kneeling in a wax museum on her first date, crying…”), communicates in not appropriate way (“Send me a pic of ur boobs, says the third [message]”) (Coyle 366,368). In this case we can see not only typical violator’s behavior, but also the reaction, which majority of the women have: belief that “no one will ever love [her]” (Coyle
Andrea Schiavone devised a strategy to distinguish himself from the master painters before him. This style is marked by a sense on incompleteness and feathery brushwork. The painting The Marriage of Cupid and Psyche shows Schiavone at his best because it is the perfect example of the harmony between Titian and Parmigianino. The sinuous lines depicted in the painting give it a lot of sex appeal, while his heavy-duty paint handling keeps it from cloying. In this work Schiavone forces you think past the accepted notions of what is right, and instead focus on the beauty that lies past right and wrong. The painting itself is of Venetian origins, dating back to 1550. It is composed of oil on wood and it was originally octagonal in shape. The corners were add...
Seligman, L., & Reichenberg, L. W., (2010). Solution-focused brief therapy. In J. Johnston (Ed.), Theories of counseling and psychotherapy: systems, strategies, and skills.Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education
The short stories “Souls Belated” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” have in common ‘Marriage’ as main theme. However, the marriage is treated quite differently in both short stories. In "Souls Belated", Lydia chooses to take control of her destiny, to deviate from conventions and to choose what is good for her. She is the strongest character of the couple. Whereas, in "The Yellow Wallpaper", the name of the main character who is also the narrator of the story is not known. She is identified as being John’s wife. This woman, contrary to Lydia in "Souls Belated" is completely locked up in her marriage. This essay will first describe and compare the characters of Lydia and John's wife in the context of marriage, and then it will look at how marriage is described, treated and experienced by couples in these two short stories.
Dixon, Travis L., TaKeshia Brooks. “Rap Music and Rap Audiences: Controversial Themes, Psychological Effects and Political Resistance.” Perspectives. 7 April 2009. .
What is hip-hop? Assuming that you address hip-hop fans, the term alludes to more than simply a musical type - it incorporates an entire society, including dance structures, graffiti symbolization, and fashion (Selke INT). Hip-hop music is portrayed by an entertainer rapping over a track that regularly comprises of loops or specimens of other music woven together (Selke INT). Hip-hop appeared originally in the Bronx around the 1970s and steadily turned into the predominant mainstream music structure by the 1990s, representing a multi- billion dollar industry today (Selke INT).