Mortalia Facta Peribunt Gender

Madonna or Whore?: Exploring the Duality in Social Perceptions of Female Sexuality

I. Introduction

A young woman stands in front of a mirror admiring her naked form. Too engrossed in sensual self-worship, she is unaware that a skeletal figure, Death, peers at her from the corner, holding an hourglass in his hands. At her feet lies a wing and to her left—a wheel. This description is of Mortalia Facta Peribunt, also titled Made Mortal They Must Die or Death Surprising a Woman, a print of an engraving housed in the Blanton Museum of Art. The engraving was created by an anonymous Italian artist working under the pseudonym “Monogrammist M”. The Blanton Museum claims this unknown artist was active between 1500 and 1550 and that the engraving was

The answer to this question lies in the impact of the traditional female sex role. To understand why the artist used the woman as an example of the perils of sexual vanity, we must discuss the social circumstances of the artist’s era. The patriarchal nature of Italian Renaissance society provided women with little to no political and economic rights. Moreover, the Counter-Reformation played a major role in defining the role of a female. Women were regarded as inferior, so they must be not only protected, but controlled Women were regarded as “emblems of Catholic morality”, and expected to become devoted wives and mothers (Rosenthal). A woman was expected to model herself on the Virgin Mary, so chastity was the most important virtue of all (Knox). The standard of comportment for women was modestia—a set of social rules and expectations demanded obedience, decorum, and restraint (Knox). As they lived their lives adhering to strict guidelines imposed on them, women lacked freedom of mind and body, and their identities were “confined within their own domestic fortresses (Rosenthal). Fast-forward Along with controlling the female It is not surprising that women who failed