What visual and Biblical archetypes does art history (aka art by European or American men in the last 2,000 years) provide for women?
Sadly, the most popular archetypes are the passive “good” girl or the deadly vamp.
I now realize that Salome paintings interest me as the darker side of what I studied in all those Annunciations. No matter how many times or how quickly I switch between the two, I will never see an empowering woman.
In one iteration, this cube displays Annunciation paintings by: Robert Campin (Merode Altarpiece), Jan and Hubert Van Eyck (Ghent Altarpiece), Leonardo da Vinci, Henry Ossawa Tanner, Carlo Braccesco, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
The other iteration consists of Salome paintings by Caravaggio, Bernardino Luini, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Andrea Solario, Titian, and Lovis Corinth.
This theme of the Madonna-whore complex in a subset of art history has bothered me for a long time. Presenting it through an infinitely repeating dichotomy does not allow me the pleasure of painting, but it more sincerely expressed the concept than my more painterly attempts.
Colleen Wampole 
4 responses to “Yoshimoto cubes, part 2”
[…] previous art cubes used appropriation to present opposing two-dimensional views of womanhood in religious art […]
[…] previous posts leading up to this cube, please consult “Yoshimoto cubes,” parts 1, 2, 3, and […]
[…] The strategy for this painting is to mash together well-painted but misogynistic paintings of women. Both the narrative and the depictions of Salome had qualities which I found troubling when regarded as a group. In all cases I object to the slut-shaming characterization of women as two-dimensional femmes fatales. (I have paired this theme with that of Mary in the past.) […]
[…] mini Madonna-whore cube […]