Leonardo da Vinci and transgenderism
Contemporary Art | In the context of Leonardo da Vinci’s 500th birthday, the exhibition La Joconde nue at the Condé de Chantilly Museum presents the public with the emblematic life-size bust portrait of a stripped woman in the same posture as Mona Lisa, sporting the same enigmatic smile. This double nakedness founds the prototype of ambiguous beauty and questions the very current phenomenon of transgenderism.
Atelier de Léonard de Vinci, La Joconde nue (détails)
Chantilly, musée Condé, DE-32
© RMN-Grand Palais domaine de Chantilly-Michel Urtado18-542566
Who is she or who is he? Is it the portrait of a courtesan or the disguised one of Salai, his favorite disciple?
If the hair tied at the top of the head refers to a sculpture from the Antiquity, the Capitol Venus, this disturbing work, seldom known by the general public, is now elevated to the rank of androgynous icon.
It manifests a changing identity where myth and real portrait are confused; a character with a two-sided sexuality so attractive and enigmatic that the director Pier Paolo Pasolini considered devoting a study to it.
Atelier de Léonard de Vinci, La Joconde nue
Chantilly, musée Condé, DE-32
© RMN-Grand Palais domaine de Chantilly-Michel Urtado18-542566
The attribution of this drawing, acquired in 1862 by […]
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