Page 33 - Contemporary Art and Old Masters

The Human Beast
Antonio Fillol Granell (1870-1930), Oil on canvas, 1897. Madrid, Museo
Nacional del Prado. Photo © Museo Nacional del Prado

SHIPWRECKED WOMEN of handicrafts. The names of the women who made those
The term ‘náufragas’ (shipwrecked women) appears in pieces were thus lost as in a shipwreck.
the titles of two literary texts published in 1831 and 1909
respectively. The first is Las españolas náufragas (The MODELS IN THE ATELIER
shipwrecked Spanish women) by Segunda Martínez de The magnification of feminine beauty during the
Robles, and the second is a short story by Emilia Pardo nineteenth century brought new roles for models, who
Bazán that appeared in the magazine Blanco y Negro. theatricalised their poses to incarnate new characters in
Both texts centre on the marginalisation suffered by many the artists’ studios. Dressed in period costume or haute
women in the patriarchal culture of the nineteenth century. couture, and caged like beautiful birds deprived of an
A lack of specialised training often prevented them from identity, the progressively high value placed on external
entering a profession and earning a living for themselves, appearance and composure turned them into exquisite
or forced them into modest if not demeaning jobs. consumer items destined to give pleasure to the public.
Some rebelled against these imposed constraints. In the In time, the representation of models in the atelier, their
particular field of art, wives and daughters of painters were workplace, almost acquired the category of a sub-genre.
on occasions given specific training, but the duties they Most painters depicted them as bibelots, little ornamental
performed in the ateliers were generally the subordinate figures arranged alongside the other objects in the
tasks of an assistant, and their presence in spaces of male studio. Passive spectators of male artistic creation, they
creativity was therefore habitual but invisible. Nor was dared intervene in it only to emphasise their superficially
there any public recognition of the silent work done by childish image, turning their “impudence” into an object
many other women in domestic surroundings, a production of mockery, and reaffirming their lack of artistic genius.
regarded by elitist art history as belonging to the minor field

WORLD of ART 33