The European Nude

Art speaks to the nature of the culture that created it, and when the traditional European

oil painting was at its height, the average art piece focused on the possessions of the painting’s

owner. A subset of this tradition focused on a specific possession: women. When looking at

traditional European oil paintings, it is easy to become overwhelmed by what feels like an

endless number of paintings of nude women. Upon first seeing one such nude, “Lot and His

Daughters” by Dutch artist Joachim Wtewael, I barely registered it among the sea of others. As

one woman says in a discussion with John Berger, “You can’t get any information from it”

(“Ways of Seeing Episode 2”). It wasn’t until I read the title that I looked at the painting more

critically. The title states clearly that the image depicted is one of incest. If it is true that art is

representative of the culture that created it, then what does a nude focused on incest suggest? The

painting looks like what most nudes looked like at the time; two women with no clothing on

except for a few drapings of see-through fabric are around a single man, fully clothed, who is

possessively grabbing on to one woman’s breasts while the other woman feeds him grapes.

Although the women are both depicted as possessions to the man in the painting with them, they

are there for the pleasure of the spectator.

John Berger explains that “Almost all post-Renaissance European sexual imagery is

frontal – either literally or metaphorically – because the sexual protagonist is the spectator-owner

looking at it” (Ways of Seeing, 56). The center woman’s body is aptly facing the viewer,

completely exposed. Even the hand her father has placed on her breast does not conceal it to the

owner entirely. The woman therefore belongs to her father and also to the owner of the painting.

This owner is always a man. I, as a woman, gain no pleasure from looking at traditional

European nudes in general, but I do not feel any particularly negative reaction from them either.
For all that I have seen prior to this painting, I have been indifferent. I am not the target

audience. But this painting is different from the ones I have personally experienced before. The

women are not alone or with cupid or even a lover, they are with their father. Personally, when I

first realized this, I was repulsed. Reading the biblical story only served to add to my revulsion,

as “Lot’s daughters decide that their father must impregnate them to continue the human race.

Assuming that their father would not knowingly participate in such behavior, they get him drunk

and sleep with him on two successive nights” (Lipka, Hilary). In the 1600s, the story of incest

would have been well known for the owner of the painting and its viewers. What then is the

spectator supposed to be envisioning when he sees this painting? That his daughters will get him

drunk one night and sleep with him? In a broader sense, what does this nude say about the

culture that created it?

Incest was and still is something that most cultures view as taboo. Yet this image of incest

is used to increase the sexual desire of the male who is viewing it. After my initial revolted

reaction to the painting, it was easy to see that this incestual imagery is still used in modern times

for the same purpose. It was only a little over a month ago that one of the United States’ former

presidential nominees and current senator Ted Cruz liked a post on the social media platform

Twitter that contained a clip of a video with incest porn in it. The senator claimed that it was an

accident. I am not surprised that the one pornographic video that happened to be accidentally

liked was one with incest in it, considering that, according to former adult actress Aurora Snow,

“Fictional incest porn, better known as fauxcest, is on the rise—a dark, dirty desire that’s

certainly not for everyone” (Snow, Aurora). When Snow goes on to interview people in the

industry about why they think incest porn is becoming so popular, the overall idea was that incest

is taboo and socially unacceptable, and because people cannot experience it for themselves, they
turn to watching it. The scandal is what makes the porn appealing. In the same way, “Lot and His

Daughters” depicts a story of immorality.

People view all traditional European oil paintings as amazing works of art. John Berger

claims that, “The visual arts have always existed within a certain preserve; originally this

preserve was magical or sacred” (Ways of Seeing, 32). They tend not to view the paintings as

what they are: a look into the history and culture of the past. In the same essay of Ways of Seeing,

Berger writes that the images of these art pieces can be used to relate to our current personal

experiences as well as show us our relation to history (Ways of Seeing, 33). We tend to think of

these old paintings as separate from our experience, that we would not be able to relate to the

images that they depict. Personally, it is difficult to see any oil paintings from the era as anything

but what I have been led to believe they are: beautiful treasures that speak to a higher standard of

culture and life. Yet if one looks closer at the paintings themselves, without idealizing them all as

works of genius, they can see that our culture today is not so different from the culture of the

past. The reality of the culture portrayed in the oil paintings and in our modern times is not

always the pretty idealization that we would like it to be. The incredible parts of our culture are

present and can be found in art, but the same goes for the aspects of life that we would rather

hide.
 Works Cited

Berger, John. Ways of Seeing. British Broadcasting Corporation, 1972.

Lipka, Hilary. “Lot and His Daughters.” Bible Odyssey,

www.bibleodyssey.org/en/places/related-articles/lot-and-his-daughters.

“Lot and His Daughters.” LACMA Collections, collections.lacma.org/node/246429.

Snow, Aurora. “'Fauxcest': The Disturbing Rise of Incest-Themed Porn.” The Daily Beast, The

Daily Beast Company, 22 Apr. 2017, www.thedailybeast.com/fauxcest-the-disturbing-

rise-of-incest-themed-porn.

“The Ways of Seeing Part 2:” British Broadcasting Corporation, 1972,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1GI8mNU5Sg.