Semester II: How to Visually Represent the Human Hand, a representation throughout history

01/10/2014

Sr 2, Blog entry 5:

Due to my need to grasp a firm idea of what it is I am trying to say about the Human Hand in my work, for both the purpose of my Concept and Dissertation modules, which are designed to run hand in hand so to speak, I have decided to conduct a visual survey of how the human hand has been represented throughout history. I need to find out exactly what was important about the human hand to different artists and eras in order to understand how the hand in art is and has been perceived and portrayed.

Leonardo Da Vinci, John The Baptist, (1513 - 1516)
Oil on Panel, Louvre, Paris

Returning to my research from last semester found that the gesture of pointing upward is found in many of Da Vinci's works, I found that this hand gesture could possibly depict the experience of the divine. The pose of the characters left hand however is just as interesting as that of the right as it is seemingly covering his modesty, an act which is often associated with women in art, could this hand posture suggest femininity?

Sandro Botticelli, Birth of Venus, (1486) tempera on canvas, Uffizi, Florence

Praxiteles, Capitoline Venus or Aphrodite of Knidos,
(4th Century B.C.) Marble Sculpture

Earlier than John the Baptist, the use of the hands to cover the female modesty is seen in Birth of Venus and earlier still, in the Capitoline Venus the hands are used as a "sheath" (Clarke, 1956: 5) to conceal their bodies. All of these images have one particular thing in common, which could lead to this covering posture of the hands: The characters in each visual are viewed as divine entities. Venus is a goddess and John the Baptist is a christian icon. Could the covering of their bodies actually suggest that we as mere mortals are not worthy to look upon divine bodies?

Leonardo Da Vinci, Lady with an Ermine, (1483 - 1490) Oil on Wood,
  Czartroyski Museum,  Cracow

The pose of the female subject's hand in this image is interesting due to its capability to portray femininity in a rather different way, although she is not covering herself like Venus, this subject's hand pose is of an etherial nature. Although Da Vinci was clearly skilled at painting the body with accuracy, so it can be assumed that this hand has been painted in such a way that it purposely looks like it could not hold the weight of the animal (presumably a ferret). The idea of the hand portraying femininity by not fully clutching or grasping anything yet still being able to manipulate the environment around a character is see again in Ray's photography (below).

Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp as Rrose S'elavy, (1923) Photography

Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp as Rrose S'elavy, (1923) Photography

Jones states that the hand gestures are feminine (jones, 1993: 21 – 31), this suggests that the hand in art can in fact portray such a complex notion as femininity. 

There is one issue which should be addressed to do with the perception of femininity, which is a constant throughout all of these visuals: All of the above were created by men, this might suggest that if the hand positions do in fact suggest femininity it is a male perception of such.

Throughout this blog I intend to look at other images of the hand to find out more about what it can represent.