Raphael, La Fornarina, 1518-1519, 33 in × 24 in. (85 cm × 60 cm), oil on wood, National Gallery of Ancient Art, Rome.
The great artist Raphael was known for his love of sex. While working in Rome, he found his muse, Margherita Luti, and painted a portrait to commemorate her beauty.
Margherita is outfitted in draping red and translucent fabric, her pale breasts exposed in the harsh white light. She dons a coordinating oriental hat and armband, suggesting a degree of wealth as a result of her association with Raphael. Her armlet reads “RAPHAEL URBINAS” in gold letters. While her chest is ghostly white, Margherita’s face is flushed red with heat. Her left hand rests in her lap, while her right hand is drawn under her left breast.
This eroticized painting of a male artists’ muse is a theme stretching across centuries of portraiture. Studios are a male-dominated space where artists have artistic and sexual control over models. Carol Duncan notes that females in portraiture “usually appear as personal possessions of the artist, part of his specific studio and objects of his particular gratification.”
Margherita’s hand placement over her breast and her groin has strong sexual implications. Raphael claims ownership of his muse by posing her in the nude, but also by dressing her in expensive accessories, and depicting her in an armband with his name stitched in gold.
Sources:
“Biography of Raphael.” Raphael Biography | Life, Paintings, Influence on Art, 2002, www.raphaelsanzio.org/biography.html.
Duncan, Carol. “Virility and Domination in Early Twentieth-Century Vanguard Painting.” Feminism and Art History: Questioning the Litany, edited by Norma Broude and Mary D. Garrard, Harper & Row, 1982, pp. 293–313.
Penny, Nicholas. “Raphael.” Grove Art Online. 2003. Oxford University press. Date of access 2 Dec. 2020, <https://www-oxfordartonline-com.ezproxy.bowdoin.edu/groveart/view/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.001.0001/oao-9781884446054-e-7000070770>