Object Annotation 7

Brothel Joachim Beuckelaer (1533-1574) Oil on panel painting made in 1562 Currently housed in the Walters Art Museum

Context: During the 16th century, paintings of brothels accompanied a resurgence in interest in rural life, as the rich were often amused at the actions of the poor and would use these paintings as moralizing cases. In this case, according to Starr, the viewer use of a value judgment affects his or her view of the painting, as the rich saw the voyeuristic actions of the people portrayed in this scene as immoral and ultimately unbecoming. This directly influences how this scene conjures arousal as because how the viewer relates to the art directly affects whether or not they are aroused by the scene. The rich who collected these art pieces probably would not have been aroused by this piece due to their own value judgement of the actions portrayed in paintings like Brothel.

Subject: The paintings subject is a 16th century brothel. In this scene the affect of touch helps generate arousal amongst the viewer. According to Barolsky, tactile sense contributes heavily to the arousal and erotic's in the painting Venus as the sense of touch highlights the beauty and erotica of Venus(Barolsky, 95). The sense of touch contributes heavily to the erotica in Brothel as the use of touch mostly by the men in the scene, helps build anticipation for sex and contributes to the sense of arousal in the scene. The Brothel though kind of run down, is still a place for sex and the sense of anticipation created by the tactile sense contributes greatly to the sense of arousal that the viewer gets through anticipation.

Style: Beuckelaer though trying to create a sense of arousal also does not shy away from the dirtiness and disgust present in the brothel. According to Foerschner, McCarthy creates disgust in his artwork by overturning the traditional process of cooking and turns food into a primal substance (Foerschner, 95-96). Beuckelaer does a similar thing here as through the style of the artwork, the sense of arousal is transformed into a far more primitive sense. We can see that the men in the scene are touching the women, but not in a loving way but in a possessive way. Beuckelaer does to use an idealized style, but instead creates a far more possessive and carnal image, where the men seek to own and possess the women's bodies rather than the cultural norm of arousal through love or respect in the present and 16th century. Beuckelaer's more dirty and primal style helps contribute to the sense of uncomfortableness and disgust we feel while looking at this painting and helps transform the art of arousal and sex into a far more primal action.