Affiliation:
1. The Pennsylvania State University
Abstract
Chapter 1 considers Poussin’s canvases representing Cephalus and Aurora and
Diana and Endymion, focusing on the goddesses as sexual predators who snare
innocent mortal males, dominating them in love. Their stories reflect a patriarchal
inversion in which men project the belief that females control them in love, whereas
in Poussin’s time the reverse was normally the case, as exemplified in laws and
customs severely restricting women’s sexual activities outside of marriage.
Publisher
Amsterdam University Press