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The best of women were virgins, as "the construction of the female chaste body as a sign of fallen humanity's alienation from its own properly angelic nature" only furthered the gap between pure virgins and women of a lower tier who were virgins no longer. [11] In The Romaunt of the Rose, "women are synonymous with sensual desire." The ...
[17] In the medieval period, fur symbolized female sexuality and was commonly associated with the Magdalene. Medieval historian Philip Crispin explains that artists such as Memling and Matsys often portrayed the Magdalen in furs and notes that she "is noticeably dressed in fur-lined garments in The Magdalen Reading by Rogier van der Weyden". [18]
Weir and Jerman also argue their location on churches and the grotesque features of the figures, by medieval standards, suggests they represented female lust as hideous and sinfully corrupting. [ 2 ] Another theory, espoused by Joanne McMahon and Jack Roberts, is the carvings are remnants of a pre-Christian fertility or mother goddess religion ...
The subsequent evolution of the female nude was sporadic, with hardly any full nude figures, but partial or with the technique of draperie mouillée ("wet cloths"), light dresses and attached to the body, such as the Aphrodite of the Ludovisi Throne, the Niké of Paeonius (425 BC), or the Venus Genetrix of the Museo delle Terme in Rome.
In Christian Europe, the parts of the body that were required to be covered in public did not always include the female breasts. In depictions of the Madonna from the 14th century, Mary is shown with one bared breast, symbolic of nourishment and loving care. [93]
In looking at coroner records for 14th-century rural England detailing the accidental deaths of 1,000 people, which represent the lives of peasants more clearly, Barbara Hanawalt found that 30% of women died in their homes compared to 12% of men; 9% of women died on a private property (i.e. a neighbour's house, a garden area, manor house, etc ...
Women of the Sakalava and Vezo peoples in Madagascar began wearing masonjoany, a decorative paste made from ground wood, in the 9th century C.E.It is worn on the face as sunscreen and insect repellent, as well as decoration, with women painting flowers, leaves and stars in white and yellow pastes.
Woman wearing a one-piece bliaut and cloak or mantle, c. 1200, west door of Angers Cathedral.. The bliaut or bliaud is an overgarment that was worn by both sexes from the eleventh to the thirteenth century in Western Europe, featuring voluminous skirts and horizontal puckering or pleating across a snugly fitted under bust abdomen.