Some illustrations may be clicked in order to see enlarged or to get more information
Barthelemy Prieur, France (1536-1611)
Wrestling Nymphs
Aristide Maillol, France (1861-1944)
Wrestling Nudes
Bronze, 18cm
Francesco Furini, Italy (1603-1646)
Hylas and the Nymphs
Franz von Stuck, Germany (1863-1928)
Fighting Fauns, 1889
Neue Pinakothek, Munich, Germany
Tamara de Lempicka, Poland, Russia, France, USA (1898-1980)
Bathers
Position in a freestyle wrestling match
Egon Schiele, Austria (1890-1918)
Two Women
Sophisticated wrestling
Eugene Delacroix
Young Woman Leaning over a Woman Stretched out on the Ground, circa 1840
Pen and wash, 105 x 175 mm
Musee du Louvre, Paris
Max Brunning (1887- 1968)
Erotic fight ("Pussy fight")
Repring from the monography by Werner Sonntag "Fighting Lust".
Tender pin. Photo of the early 20th century
Repring from the monography by Werner Sonntag "Fighting Lust".
Luis Ricardo Falero, Spain (1851-1896)
The Balance of the Zodiac
Star Nymphs (Nereides), 1900 -1910
|
 |
In the first part, we mentioned the artwork by George Bellows named "Stag at Sharkey's". In fact, battle genre is a real stag (male only gathering), which is sometimes visited by (mythological) representatives of the small female group of Amazons, Spartan girls and rare female warriors. In this part, we are passing to the distinctive "female coterie" and since we consider combative activities - to "soft" forms of wrestling. What kind of female gathering artists like to draw? Mostly, Nymphs and bathers (which artists also imagined as Nymphs). As far as motion is concerned, women are not the best objects because they are not as dynamic as men are. In order to represent women's dynamic in fine art you should manage to peep deeply into the female soul (and then to somehow depict it). It's harder than portraying men's muscles and battling warriors. The old masters knew about this difficulty; for example, Mikelangelo didn't like carving women considering them too static for the genre of sculpture.
Artists and sculptors considered water Nymphs (Niadas) as primary female fighters. A few wrestling Nymphs sculptures have been created, one of the oldest by Barthelemy Prieur. The widely known sculpture belongs to Aristide Maillol. However, his "wrestlers" hug each other too tenderly, so some sellers think they are dancers. They might call the sculpture "caresses" as well; however, Maillol still called them "Wrestling nudes". Maillol created several etudes with wrestling Nymphs; probably he had other similar intentions. It's difficult to say why delicate Nymphs wrestle. Perhaps, young people like to frolic, especially being close to water. Besides, like in any female gathering, rivalry thrives among Nymphs - the plot about Diane and Callisto (depicted my many artists) confirms that. In addition, Nymphs had to deal with crude and unruly Satyrs who Nymphs had to constantly resist. Probably, thanks to that practice they elaborated skills and desires for wrestling. In any case, Nymphs wrestle often and gladly but of course, not for real (not like men). On the painting by Francesco Furini "Hilas and Nymphs", two Nymphs have pretensions of the friend of Hercules; one of them attempts to softly take him away of her rival. Besides the practice of resistance to Satyrs, Nymphs were able to learn fighting techniques watching Satyrs fighting each other. If to believe Franz von Stuck, Nymphs watched Satyrs fight with enthusiasm, probably they also learned.  Why Satyrs fought each other is unclear, they seemed to have enough Nymphs to deal with. Nevertheless, we can consider the opposite version: some of the Nymphs got Satyrs but some not...
Any female bathers, especially nude, remind Nymphs; like Nymphs, they are enthusiastic about romping or wrestling. Camille Pissarro and Auguste Renoir got their tender bathers to wrestle. Nobody would argue that the Renoir's nudes are the most feminine creatures in the world. Whatever they do (and they are created just for one job - for love), they are very static reminding clumsy lazy seals thrown on the beach (especially the similarity is close with regards to his bathers). Languid, buxom beauties bask in the water or on the beach; all the sudden, one of them takes a notion to play with another one in a naughty way and to wrestle her down (see the title illustration). However, the second one takes into her head to resist - she plants her elbow firmly on the ground and doesn't allow the opponent to pin her. The far away girls having intended to swim just turn around and watch with an interest. The neighboring girl not approving this tomfoolery has reluctantly turned her head toward the "wrestlers" (even not turning her body). If a real conflict happened, she would look through the both eyes. No doubt, this artwork is the most dynamic by Renoir (being still quite static though) - just due to the grabbing and planting arms that promise the subsequent motion.
Here is another pair of "Nymphs" - nude girls of Moorish appearance are wrestling with the verve next to a stony creek. French Etienne Dinet the most of his life lived on the south of Algeria. What we know about the southern Algeria is that the Tuareg tribes inhabit there, which girls have a tradition of wrestling each other. If, in addition, there has happened a creek, it makes it impossible not to wrestle.
Before, we discussed the sculpture by Maillol, which may be interpreted not just as wrestling nudes but also as dancing or even Lesbian caresses. After all, how an artist-classic had to depict the dynamics of women's wrestling? Practically impossible - no vivid muscles, no deft throws, no powerful holds, no brutal faces (remember what Michelangelo said regarding this). Here we are approaching the difficulties in interpretation artistic subjects, in which women wrestle, or perhaps dance, maybe caress, maybe all of these at the time... What we really see -- they somehow physically interact. As it's fairly mentioned in the materials of the "Female Single Combat Club", wrestling and erotica are quite close and sometimes (especially in an artist's imagination), they are indiscernible. Especially it's right for the "soft" women's wrestling.
There is one more significant difference in depicting women's wrestling in compare to men's wrestling. Since the women's psycho is quite different from the men's one, particularly in areas of competitions, methods of representation of female combat must be different in any case. Men become panicky even thinking about being defeated, especially in "true men's" competitions (physical combat is the first among them). In combat, they are furious and violent because of fear of being weak in eyes of those around them. For a woman it's not that critical to be defeated (unless she competes for a prize); even being pinned is not a big shame (I know if from my own experience. . That's why female wrestlers' faces do not necessarily express a rage, they quite might express enjoyment; female bathers really wrestle for fun, not for honor, after all.
Now, let's talk about my favorite artist, Tamara de Lempicka. Two words about her life. Of Polish by origin, Tamara lived in Russia in her young years. However, in 1918, after harassing from Bolsheviks and the arrest of her husband, she left Russia for Europe and later she moved to America. I must say right away that Lempicka have not depicted female wrestling and I doubt whether she even thought about it. However, when I see groups of young nude bathers of Lempicka, I always think about a peculiar female fighting. The artist uses bright colors and sharply outlines vivid and raised silhouettes of naked solid female bodies. Her sized nudes emit sensuality, great internal energy and at the same time, female aggression. Women always vie over each other; after all, young strong women gather in the bathhouse and each one is a potential rival. Sensuality and striving for superiority in terms of beauty and love wake up in warm bath vapors. Certainly, it is far from the crude tough men's fighting. A girl just touches her neighbor, girl-friend or potential rival, then catch her tenderly by arm or leg, shoves slightly, put slight pressure on her body, attempting to test her balance and to push her down into the water. Nothing else. However, this is what we call a true women's fight. I am not sure what men feel when see the Lempicka's bathers but for me, a woman of an ordinary sexual orientation, the sight of these sclulptural bodies provoke me to think that if I happen to be among them, I would like to measure my strength against some of them. No, not to engage in wrestling like the two in the Carpeaux etude do (see the part 2) - just carefully shove her, sense her counteraction, try her balance - and all of those softly, femininely, without stress or exertion...
In the second part, we mentioned a fight between prostitutes over a client. Usually, artists depicted fighting between prostitutes or courtesans in a different way. The lithograph by Maillol "Dialogue of courtesans" is a good illustration of that. Similar courtesan "wrestling" is depicted by Austrian Egon Schiele, a representative of expressionism (the fine arts style attempting to represent internal emotions, in contrast to the naked realism). A few of his artworks have the same name, "Two women". Two whimsically intertwining female bodies are represented on the first one. The interlacing is complex and fancy; perhaps, you can see something like this only during a wrestling match. However, there is no trace of a fierce battle on the women's faces... On the second work, two girls are in the tight contact again. Something should happen in a moment: takedown, pin, ... or a kiss. That's what expressionism is all about - puzzling.
As we have mentioned, in context of the works of Tamara de Lempicka, the "soft" women's wrestling is a delicate substance. However, it still might contain more tough elements of a real wrestling. In other words, the "Lesbian" contacts and wrestling between two women are often combined, although at first glance, they have little in common - after all, wrestling entails dynamics and physical counteracting while the "Lesbian" contacts seem to be smooth and tender. As it was said, wrestling is a powerful erotic stimulus and since women's motions are not too fast or jerky (the classical feminine image is a graceful, languid and tender woman), two physically interacting female bodies might combine wrestling and caresses. The special term is invented, "erotic wrestling". In fact, women wrestle each other, being gradually aroused by wrestling and body contacts... However, I am not a specialist in these matters and I won't expound too much on them. Just represent a few artworks by well-known artists, Egon Schiele, Aristide Maillol, Eugene Delacroix and Franz Marc.
The direct connection between erotica and fighting is represented on the frivolous print by Eusebi Planas "Stimulation". The men standing next to his pregnant wife is arousing (it's noticeably he already has) by the sight of naked women fighting. The event happens in a bedroom. The women fight under duress without enthusiasm being forced by the man and his female helper holding a whip. On the Hans Wassman's sketch, "Amazon battle" "fierce erotic pile of bodies" is represented consisting of nude ecstatic women armed with daggers-penises... At this point, we finish with erotica.
On the painting by the Spanish artist Ricardo Falero "Balance of Zodiac" or "Scales" two star Nymphs (Nereides) are depicted as slender equilibrist girls, demonstrating the perfect balance in the space. On the work "Star Nymphs" (it' seems to be a Falero imitation) several; pairs are engaged in either a friendly wrestling or in a peculiar cosmic dance. Soft wrestling in Cosmos? It seems to me that the main thing in physical contest is the ability to keep balance and to orient in space. I guess the "Balance of Zodiac" symbolizes two elements of the life - struggle and balance. Ultimately, struggle is for balance and at the same time, it destroys the balance. Te struggle is a kind of a model of the life; you must properly balance yourself -- losing the balance means the defeat in the struggle. Two airy girl figures in the impossible for them athletic pose - the rare by its ambivalence picture. The lower girl controls the balance; she enjoys the moment of triumph, superiority and harmony. Perhaps, the mighty Hercules experienced similar feelings when picked up equally mighty Antaeus. He has time to throw the opponent down the earth but he enjoys his own power looking forward to the moment of triumph; he keeps the opponent in fears of that coming final moment... So, "the final goal is nothing ... the movement is everything".
In conclusion, representing the work by Rudolf Schlichter, it seems to me the best representation of men's dreams about female wrestling
Rudolf Schlichter, Germany (1890-1955)
Scrapping ladies, 1928
Oil on canvas
Thanks to Mr. LeVV from the Female Single Combat Club for providing me with the information about artworks unknown to me as well as for help in finding illustrations for the essay.
I also thank Mr. Werner Sonntag who permitted to use his unique collection of illustrations in his book "Fighting Lust". I got familiar with some of great works just by these illustrations placed on the Female Single Combat Club site.
|
|
Some illustrations may be clicked in order to see enlarged or to get more information
Aristide Maillol
Sea Nymphs (Verve Cover)
Two color lithographs by Mourlot Freres, Paris for the Verve magazine, 1939
Size: 25 x 33cm
Camille Pissarro, France (1830-1903)
Wrestling Bathers (Baigneuses luttant), 1896
Lithograph. 18cm x 23cm
Etienne Dinet, France, Algeria (1861-1929)
Bathers Wrestling, 1909
Tamara de Lempicka, Poland, Russia, France, USA (1898-1980)
Women Bathing, 1929
Oil, 80 x 100cm
Aristide Maillol, France (1861-1944)
Dialog of courtesans
Lithography
Egon Schiele, Austria (1890-1918)
Two Women
Position in a wrestling match
Egon Schiele, Austria (1890-1918)
Two Women
Position in a freestyle wrestling match
Aristide Maillol, France (1861-1944)
Two nudes
Lithography
Franz Marc, Germany (1880-1916)
Two Female Nudes, 1912-1913
Tempera, Watercolour, 28 x 38 cm
Eusebi Planas, Spain
Stimulation
Pencil and water color
Repring from the monography by Werner Sonntag "Fighting Lust".
Hans Wassmann, Germany (1873 - 1932)
Erotic battle of Amazons (Battle with penis dummies)
From the book by Enst Schertel "Flagelation complex", 1932
Repring from the monography by Werner Sonntag "Fighting Lust".
|
