4 - Vulcan, Mars, and Venus: Erotic Touch
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 November 2020
Summary
Abstract
This chapter situates Velázquez's The Forge of Vulcan, Mars, and The Rokeby Venus as painted prompts for thoughts of erotic touching. Essential in this regard is the shared allusion to the story of Venus, Mars, and Vulcan, where erotic touching propels the narrative. Also explored are iconographic connections to contemporary allegories of the sense of touch. The visual relationship of Mars and The Rokeby Venus to works of sculpture is placed in the context of the paragone discourse, especially the different role of touch in the perception of the two media. Of particular focus is the provocative relationship between The Rokeby Venus and the Borghese Hermaphrodite.
Keywords: Ludovisi Mars, Sculpture sense of touch, Painting sense of touch
Chapter Three centered on how Velázquez thematized mechanical skill, or, to put it another way, the artist's touch. The delicacy of his touch is eloquently articulated by the spark-like brushstrokes animating the surface of Las Meninas (Fig. 35), or by the actual painted sparks that appear in The Forge of Vulcan (Plate 4). Touch is implicit in some of these paintings in other ways as well, both in terms of the representation of touching, and through iconographic allusions to touch, erotic touch in particular. Velázquez did not investigate the communicative value of touch nearly to the extent Rembrandt did, but skillful and erotic touch are both at play in the story of Venus, Mars, and Vulcan. Velázquez made The Forge of Vulcan, Mars (Fig. 43), and The Rokeby Venus (Plate 5) over the span of many years, for different venues, but these paintings are all driven by the same narrative, and they all emphasize the critical role of touch in propelling that story.
Aside from Vulcan's firm grip on his tools and materials, The Forge of Vulcan does not emphasize touching directly. The attentive viewer's mind, though, inevitably remembers that Apollo discovered Mars and Venus in an erotic embrace, and recalls how that discovery led to the dramatic moment depicted in this painting, and to Vulcan's clever response. Touch may have been associated with physical skill, as discussed in Chapter Three, but it was also among the material and most dangerous of the senses because of its connection with sex.
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- Sense Knowledge and the Challenge of Italian Renaissance ArtEl Greco, Velázquez, Rembrandt, pp. 121 - 140Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2019