VISUAL CULTURE ART 218: Chapter 12, The Stigmata of Abjection: Degenerate Limbs, Hysterical Skin and the Tattooed Body

Paleolithic

Prehistoric period of human history

(time before written records)

Observation

Venus of Willendorf, 4.3 inches high, 24,000 BC approx.
Discovered lower Austria in 1908, limestone.

Egypt

Highly stylized

Egyptian

Greek and Roman Classical

Ancient, 500 BC

Perfection, Pose

Classical

Classical. Emperor Augustus.

Neo-classical Sculpture

Immaculate body, 1750 - 1850

(neo - new or revived form)

Perfection, Drama

Psyche Revived by Love's Kiss, marble, 1793.
First Commissioned. Neo-Classical.
Love and Emotion. Sight and Touch.

The Greek Slave, marble, 1851

Jason With Golden Fleece, 1803

United States of America

Jean-Antoine Houdon (French), located in Richmond, VA.
Late 18th century. Marble. Life Size.
Replicate through measurements. Commissioned.

Henry Bacon sculptor. Located Washington D.C. 1922

Gutzon Borglum, Danish-American. South Dakota. 1939.
Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, Lincoln.
Part Commission. Tourism.

Remove Human Figure from Memorial

Maya Lin, Architect. 1980's. Vietnam Memorial, Washington D.C.
Commissioned (but with a wide perspective) and Collaboration.

Lin's original sketch.

Degenerate body photography appears in journals.

1888 - 1922

Disease

Asymmetrical

Stigmata of degeneracy invisible.

Eliminate those who appeared degenerate.

Includes bodies with scars and tattoos.

Invoke fear.

Jean Martin Charcot
French neurologist, hypnosis and hysteria.
b. 1825 - d. 1893
France

The modern industrial city.

Alcohol

Syphilis

Malnutrition

Tuberculosis

Schizophrenia

Neurosis, Psychosis, Idiocy, Infertility - extinction of an entire family.

Unclean, uncivilized, threat to evolution.

Apartheid and Genocide

Benedict Augustin Morel
b. 1809 - d. 1873
French psychiatrist.
Degeneration theory.

Tattoo Culture

Tattoo - comes from the Tahitian "tatu"meaning "to mark something".

Decoration
Rites of passage
Marks of social status and rank
Symbols of religious devotion
Decoration for bravery
Marks of fertility (figure of baby on head)
Pledges of love
Punishment
Amulets and talisman
Protection as the marks of outcasts and convicts
As children come of age - boys reaching manhood
Men when they marry
Married women tattooed on hands, feet, thighs, blue lines between lower lip and chin
British soldiers, deserted, "D", Chapter 12
Sailors to exotic foreign lands, souvenirs (dragon-China)

1771, Drawing from Cook's Voyage

Captain James Cook from England, South Pacific, 1769.

Merchant and seamen discover and bring back to Europe.

At first regarded as repulsive.

Observed as adornment

Slavery in Ancient Civilization

Persians, Greeks, Romans

Rulers tattooed themselves.

Ivy leaves to symbolize devotion to Dionysus (Greek god of wine and patron to the royal house).
307 AD - Emperor Constantine.
Early Christians.

German mystic Heinrich Suso, 1295-1366.
Name of Christ tattooed over his heart.
Others -
Emperor of Germany, 12th century, cross designs on back of hands.

Tattoos to mark ownership.

Holocaust, concentration camps.

British Army Deserters

https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co155799/branding-tool-for-marking-deserters-london-england-1810-1850-branding-tool

Circus

Railroad connects east and west states

1869

PT Barnum brings Prince Constantine to U.S.

Nora Hildebrandt. German born father is Martin Hildebrandt - started career in 1946,.
First tattoo shop in America (in NYC). - Civil War, both sides.
Nora exhibits herself beginning 1882, tours with PT Barnum.

Book

Olive Oatman 1851, United States westward expansion

Tattoos Are Popular

United States, around 1846, both sides of Civil War.

Courage, patriotism, defiance of death,
Longing for loved ones left behind.
Electric tattooing machine 1891.
World War I and II - tattoo artists follow fleets.

United States, 1947, stereotyped symbols - represented courage, patriotism, defiance of death, longing for family and loved ones left behind.
World War I and II - C.H. Fellowes follow the fleets.

Life Magazine, 1944, Coca Cola ad.

"A table set with a knife, fork, wine, a bunch of roses and a hand grasping a dagger are tattooed on to human skin. The tattooed skin was purchased by one of Henry Wellcome’s collecting agents, Captain Johnston-Saint, in June 1929 from Dr Villette, a Parisian surgeon. Villette worked in military hospitals and collected and preserved hundreds of samples from the autopsies of French soldiers. In the late 1800s, tattoos were often seen as markers of criminal tendencies, or ‘primitiveness’. Medical men tried to interpret common images and symbols. Tattoos were also used as a tool for identification, a practice that continues today." Source is Science Museum, London, link here.

Uterus tattoo as a sign of female power, not hysteria.

Images/words on living skin.

A form of empowerment.

feminism |ˈfeməˌnizəm|
noun
the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men.
The issue of rights for women first became prominent during the French and American revolutions in the late 18th century. In Britain it was not until the emergence of the suffragette movement in the late 19th century that there was significant political change. A ‘second wave’ of feminism arose in the 1960s, with an emphasis on unity and sisterhood.
ORIGIN late 19th cent.: from French féminisme.

Other ways of marking the body:

Flogging

https://www.loc.gov/item/2018648117/

Makeup

Indian Wedding

Marks in the form of objects:

Demi Moore, film Scarlett Letter, based off of Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel.
1850.
Fiction, set in mid 17th century Puritan Boston.

Egypt. Circle - eternity, sun, moon. Vein to heart.
A relic of a business deal.
Ownership, engagement ring.
Men begin wearing after WWII.
Prior to the war only women wore a ring.