Wagner, Kathrin (2023) Misconduct and Transgression in Pre-Modern Imagery of Hero and Leander. Renaissance and Reformation. ISSN 2293-7374 (Accepted for Publication)
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The article illustrates how visual examples of the myth of Hero and Leander challenge the viewer’s perception of sexuality, gender, sexual consent and power.
Although the story of Hero and Leander first appears in the writings of Ovid and Virgil, literary source for many images in Britain and continental Europe is Christopher Marlowe’s rewriting from 1593. The so-called ‘Tower scene’, a detailed description of Leander’s attempts to convince Hero of having intercourse with him, is clearly describing an act of sexual violence. This article discusses how tapestry sets produced during the seventeenth century in Mortlake omit this scene and, by doing so, romanticise an act of sexual violence. Other art works, for example Ruben’s Hero and Leander (1609), focus on the sexualisation of the recently drowned Leander that causes the arousal of accompanying nereids. This form of sexual transgression focuses on the male body and raises questions around the female gaze.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | sexuality, misconduct, tapestries, Mortlake |
| Faculty / Department: | Faculty of Creative Arts & Humanities > School of Creative and Performing Arts |
| Depositing User: | Kathrin Wagner |
| Date Deposited: | 02 May 2024 13:23 |
| Last Modified: | 02 May 2024 13:23 |
| URI: | https://hira.hope.ac.uk/id/eprint/4202 |
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