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This painting is called Kneeling Nun, by Martin Von Meytens, an Austrian painter who happened to be a protestant. The front of the portrait is the one of a seemingly pious nun who seems to be taking up her duties on prayer, with another nun behind her looking very fixated on...what if we turn the portrait and see what she's looking at?...Oh! Good heavens!
Yep. If you actually look at the reverse of this portrait, you'll see a complete image exposing another perspective that suddenly parodies the catholic devotion, having the painting turn into a sapphic tale. As a catholic, I gravitate naturally towards everything that's ironic and this was just too delicious to ignore.
Jan 6, 2025
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I have so many paintings that I love and return to but this one is my deepest personal relationship. It is SO dark visually and thematically that each time you look at it, it feels like you finally see something new. It’s bizarre and haunting and there are these absolutely gargantuan naked male figures weeping in the middle ground.
In the research I’ve done, stunned scholars have theorized that it’s a reference to Michelangelo’s Ignudi’s or large naked male figures featured in a lot of his frescoes. But why are they at a Quaker meeting? Why are they so despairing? Quaker worship is characterized by a lot of internal prayer and silence followed by explosive fits of revelation and outcrying. It is a fascinating branch of Christianity and this painting depicts their private worship so well.
In all my research I have found no conclusive answer to the question of the giant nudes, but the question itself bring me back to this piece every time I visit this museum. Dark, haunting, a forever unraveling mystery to me.
Nov 2, 2024
Kind of a genre of medieval paintings, but confirms to me how horny people have always been and how we've always had to sublimate our desires into the dominant culture. It's so weirdly explicit and bizarre, and has so many layers in how it would have been used: a painting to look at, a page in a prayer book to speak as a script, a physical object to touch and venerate and meditate with.... like imagine people fingering this "wound" and being like, yes this is honestly totally about jesus. Crazy.
Aug 2, 2024
I ♡ this painting so much!
She's so pretty! And the rendering is so masterful and fun!
Of Note:
âť– Modeled after the infamous La Maja Vestida by Francisco de Goya
❖ An inscription in the lower right dedicates the painting “To my friend Nadar.” which refers to the photographer, caricaturist, and novelist Félix Nadar
Feb 8, 2025
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