Post by Radrook Admin on Sept 10, 2022 16:44:59 GMT -5
Painting The Swing
There are many symbols in this painting that are missed a first glance such as the barking dog at the bottom right and the Cupid at the middle left. But what appear innocent additions at first sight have a far more lurid meaning as the video explains.
The Swing (French: L'Escarpolette), also known as The Happy Accidents of the Swing (French: Les Hasards heureux de l'escarpolette, the original title), is an 18th-century oil painting by Jean-Honoré Fragonard in the Wallace Collection in London. It is considered to be one of the masterpieces of the Rococo era, and is Fragonard's best known work.
The painting depicts an elegantly dressed young woman on a swing. A smiling young man, hiding in the bushes below and to the left, points towards her billowing dress with hat in hand. A smiling older man, who is nearly hidden in the shadows on the right, propels the swing with a pair of ropes, as a small white dog barks nearby. The lady is wearing a bergère hat (shepherdess hat), as she flings her shoe with an outstretched left foot. Two statues are present, one of a putto, who watches from above the young man on the left with its finger in front of its lips, the other of two putti is on the right beside the older man.
According to the memoirs of the dramatist Charles Collé, a courtier (homme de la cour)first asked Gabriel François Doyen to make this painting of him and his mistress. Not comfortable with this frivolous work, Doyen refused and passed on the commission to Fragonard. The man had requested a portrait of his mistress seated on a swing being pushed by a bishop, but Fragonard painted a layman.
This style of "frivolous" painting soon became the target of the philosophers of the Enlightenment, who demanded a more serious art which would show the nobility of man.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Swing_(Fragonard)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Swing_(Fragonard)
The most poignant symbol I find is the frayed rope that indicates that either the bonds of matrimony are coming apart, as the narrator suggests, or else that her little deceitful escapades will soon come to an abrupt and very painful ending. I guess in which direction she falls when that happens is left up to our imaginations. Will it be towards her husband, or will she fall towards her lover? Or will she go strait down? That depends on many factors, doesn't it?
Unfortunately, such treacherous, activity seems to be very frequent within the so-called holy bonds of matrimony. These types of women feel very smart and consider their husbands stupid. They frequently feign to hold high moral standards in order to reduce the possibility of suspicions, and often convince their husbands of their saintliness.
I met one of these traitorous sluts in Chicago who spent and entire fifteen minutes proudly and very confidently bragging about how her husband didn't suspect a thing, while she was regularly having sexual relations with a man whom he considered his best friend.
I had forgotten about it, but then I suddenly encountered them both a few days later on the street and she looked panicked. Thought I was going to divulge her secret to her trustful hubby. He looked very calm next to her. As if he was being accompanied by a holy angel.