noisymouse: INKTOBER DAY 28 Gift My patreon My redbubble All 2018 inktober posts Confession: I cheat
noisymouse: INKTOBER DAY 28 Gift My patreon My redbubble All 2018 inktober posts Confession: I cheated on this one and started working on it a couple days ago, and also used an old victorian illustration for pose reference. So here’s a big ol’ proper Death and the Maiden picture. Death and the Maiden is a really interesting motif to me, as I explained when I started: it was a popular Renaissance motif depicting a young, beautiful girl being carried away by a personification of Death, as a variation of the Danse Macabre, and quite honestly it seems like it’s mainly used as a intellectual excuse to draw titillating scenes of hot naked ladies being ravaged by monsters. Something very interesting happens however when the subject is approached by women: it can become this narrative where instead of being destroyed, the maiden affects a change on the monster, and instead he becomes under her power. Instead of a narrative of salacious titillation for a male audience, it becomes a primal affirmation of power for a female audience. It represents embracing forbidden or uncomfortable things, embracing sexuality and darker qualities that women are traditionally not supposed to have. It’s a motif I really enjoy wherever it pops up. -- source link