It was great to see the John Everett Millais' 1848 painting Isabella, which was his first work as a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in many of the online papers yesterday. I've gone for the coverage by the Daily Mail as I find this one to be the funniest. Don't read more if you are not allowed to read about willies!
I did actually study Art and Art History to A' level and was rather fond of the work of Gabriel Rossetti. I liked the brushwork and female characteristics and it was also intriguing their captivation of a certain female, but that's all another story.
This is all about the painting above which is called Isabella. The scene painted is based on a poem by John Keats. The story follows apprentice Lorenzo, who falls in love with a merchant's daughter, Isabella. This is clearly a problem as Lorenzo is then murdered by her brothers. Isabella, who is clearly made of sterner stuff than you would think looking at this picture, later finds his grave, digs up the body, cuts off the head and buries it in a pot of basil. OK so we have gathered that the whole family are in need of help and this all rather gruesome. But if that wasn't enough the brothers steal the chopped off head and this, not to mention all the previous trauma causes poor Isabella to die of a broken heart.
So the thing that is getting all the attention for this painting at the moment is that researchers have been talking about phallus' and it has caught some journalists attention. The researchers are harping on about the fact that the nutcracker shadow looks distinctly like a penis and is conveniently placed near the left seated man's groin. They also notice salt on the table which was symbolic at the time for semen or spilt semen. They are saying that Millais at the age of 19 was painting this picture as a warning against masturbation.
Really! A 19 year old boy painting non masturbation propaganda? Those Victorians did have it tough. (Nearly said hard and that would be wrong!) Anyway back to the story this particular scene depicts when Lorenzo has popped round for tea and Isabella's brothers are generally being moody about it and are giving him some vicious glares.
If you didn't know this painting and you had just been told the plot and this scene then you may be forgiven in thinking then that Lorenzo is the chap on the left with his stuck out leg and the apparent shadow penis. But it's not that is one of her brothers! The researchers have all been making guesses into whether all this was intentional on the part of Millais and what the message might be. That kind of job would be great as the original intention can never be refuted.
I'd like to think that as this was Millais' first piece for the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood it could have been an initiation and could have come about by a little down the local joshing.
"Thanks for getting that round in, your not a bad lad, I tell you what, if you manage to get a penis in the painting you can join us"
Fun things to look out for in the daily Mail coverage of this news.
I loved the way the Mail repeated the full picture and put a circle around the part that looks like a phallus just in case we couldn't spot it.
A Russian in the comments states that the fella must be an American as his parts are so small
One Lady in the comments point out that she would be more worried about how loud that greyhound will scream when he puts his chair leg down on it's leg - that will sort out his nutcrackers!!!
All the speculation aside it's great that we have Isabella which will be the first thing that people see when they visit the Tate Art Gallery.
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It's always a pleasure to receive feedback it would be great if you left a comment on the content of this post or just to say "Hi!". Look forward to hearing from you. Kay.