Lesbian Historic Motif Project: #110h Borris 2004 - Same-Sex Desire in the English Renaissance (Chapter 10)

Import Admin — Mon, 06 Jun 2016 02:02:19 +0000

This chapter covers various textual and visual works that can reasonably be interpreted as deliberately portraying same-sex activity for the purposes of titillation. One item of particular interest is Jeanne Mignon’s work “Women Bathing” (after Luca Penni, ca. 1540) which depicts a large group of naked women bathing together, some engaging in mutual stimulation. (The work matches in content very well with the picture mentioned by Brantôme as having been arousing to women who viewed it.)

The majority of textual works discussed here that include sexual activity between women were written by men for a male audience and therefore don’t shed much light on what women might have found arousing (or even necessarily what they participated in). The sexual dialogues of Pietro Aretino (1492-1556) include activities between women in the context of a rather anything-goes orgy.

LHMP entry type:

Chapter

Parent:

Borris, Kenneth (ed). 2004. Same-Sex Desire in the English Renaissance: A Sourcebook of Texts, 1470-1650. Routledge, New York. ISBN 978-1-138-87953-9

Borris, Kenneth (ed). 2004. Same-Sex Desire in the English Renaissance: A Sourcebook of Texts, 1470-1650. Routledge, New York. ISBN 978-1-138-87953-9

Project ID number:

110

Project ID letter:

Sub-reference:

Chapter 10: Erotica

Introduction:

My write-up of the last chapter in this work is so short, I decided to include it with the previous chapter when originally posted on LiveJournal, to finish out the work.

Event / person:

Lives of Gallant Ladies (Pierre de Bourdeille seigneur de Brantôme)Ragionamenti (Pietro Aretino)Women Bathing (Jeanne Mignon)

ISBN:

978-1-138-87953-9