Imre Györgyi szerk.: A modell, Női akt a 19. századi magyar művészetben (A Magyar Nemzeti Galéria kiadványai 2004/2)

Tanulmányok / Studies - Sascha Renner: Hatalmi anatómia / Anatomy of Power

NOTES Various spellings prevail, most prominently the Dutch variant "Saartjie Baartmann" ("Little Sarah"), which I do not use because of its paternalistic connotations. In what follows, I shall employ the spelling found in the birth certificate of December 7, 1811. (Musée de l'Homme, Paris, printed in Sharpley-Whiting 1999, 19) There is no documentation concerning Sarah Bartmann's original name. 2 Barrow, John: Johann Barrow's Reisen durch die Innern Gegenden des südlichen Afrika in den Jahren 1797 und 1798. Weimar 1801. 152. 3 111. 1: Copper engraving. 220 x 293 mm. In this cartoon the French artist mocks the voyeurism of the British. "Oh! godem, quel rosbif" ("Goddam it! What roast beef!"), comments the soldier at the left edge of the picture, while groping for Sarah Bartmann's behind. "Ah! que la nature est drôle!" ("How droll nature is!"), says the other soldier, staring straight at her genitals. "Qu'elle étrange beauté" ("What strange beauty!"), exclaims in amazement the lady with the lorgnette as she bends down to tie her shoelaces (as referred to in the title). Glancing between Sarah's legs and right up the soldier's kilt, she exclaims ambiguously, "A quelque chose malheureux est bon" ("Every cloud has a silver lining"). 4 See the print of Sartjee, The Hottentot Venus, 1811. British Library, London. The picture offers an impression about how Sarah Bartmann was presented to an eager London audience. The allure of the exotic receives enhancement from her outlandish appurtenances: a fur coat, strings of pearls, make-up, an apron, and a single-string instrument played with a bow. I Altick, Richard: The Shows of London. A Panoramic History of Exhibitions, 1600-1862. Cambridge, Mass. 1978, 268-273. 6 Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim: Laokoón oder über die Grenzen der Malerei und Poesie. In: Werke 1766-1769. Frankfurt a. Main 1990. Chapter XXV. 7 Blainville, Henri de: Sur une femme de la race hottentotte. Bulletin des Sciences, par la Société philomatique de Paris 1816. (183-190) 183. 8 Blainville op. cit. (n. 7) 186. 9 Cuvier, Georges: Extrait d'observations faites sur le cadavre d'une femme connue à Paris et à Londres sous le nom de Vénus Hottentotte

. Mémoires du Muséum d'Histoire Naturelle 3 (1817) 259-274. 10 Cuvier op. cit. (n. 9) 263. II Photo: Zentralbibliothek Zürich, Zürich. 1_ 111. 2: from J.C. Nott and George R. Gliddon: Indigenous Races of the Earth. Philadelphia and London 1857. In the "Monkey-chart" by Nott and Gliddon, which suggests a relation between monkeys and "some lower types of humans," Sarah Bartmann's likeness is shown next to 54 breeds of monkeys and five other human types. According to the authors, the illustrations reveal the "extraordinary likeness" between the four- and the two-legged inhabitants of the same geographic region (646). They maintain that the "Hottentots" "differ as completely from anything human as a pure-bred Lakonian whippet from a pug" (628). 1 Cuvier op. cit. (n. 9) 265. 14 Cuvier op. cit. (n. 9) 259. 1 Virey, Julien Joseph: Histoire naturelle du genre humain. Paris 1824. I. 16 Cuvier op. cit. (n. 9) 264. 111. 3-4: Camper, cited from Sömmerring, Samuel Thomas von: Über die körperliche Verschiedenheit des Negers vom Europäer. Frankfurt-Mainz 2001 (1785), 6. 1 Camper classified human and animal skulls according to the angle of their faces and arranged them into an ascending chain, from the "tailed monkey" and the "orang-utan" to the "Negro", "Kalmuck" (Table I; Figs. I—IV) and European up through the Roman and Greek "antique face" created "after rules of art" (Table II; Figs. I-IV). With his work he set the stage, however inadvertently, for a model of racial theory that during the 19th century was increasingly abused to defame Africans as being monkey-like. See Cat. III—

4. 19 Forster, Georg: Die Kunst und das Zeitalter. Thalia 1. (1790) (91-109) 91 f. ' Cited from Martin, Peter: Schwarze Teufel, edle Mohren. Hamburg 1993, 241. 21 The vaudeville play La Vénus hottentote, ou haine aux Française ("The Hottentot Venus, or Hate of French Women") by Théaulon, Danois and Brasier premiered in Paris on November 19, 1814. The text is fully reprinted and annotated in Sharpley-Whiting, 1999,127-164. III. 5: from Luschka, Hubert: Die Anatomie des menschlichen Beckens. Tübingen 1864. III. 6: Renée Green: Sa Main Charmante (Her Charming Hand), 1989. Mixed-media installation (stage light, paper, paint, ink on wood). 177.8 x 223.3 cm. Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio. "

4 III. 7: Gelatine silver print. 400 x 600 mm. (By permission of the artist.)