Jean Bourdichon
Bathsheba Bathing, 1498–99, Tempera and gold on vellum, 243 x 170 mm, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Ms. 79, recto, 2003.105.recto, Digital image courtesy of Getty’s Open Content Program
A Compromising Position
Commentary by Sara M. Koenig
One of the most overtly seductive images of Bathsheba is found in the Book of Hours of Louis XII (c.1498–1499), in which court painter Jean Bourdichon depicted her in a deliberately provocative manner. She is explicitly, even graphically naked: though she is immersed in water to her hips, her genitalia are visible under the water (Kren 2005: 44). Bourdichon may have included some bawdy humour by painting a cat as the spout of the fountain in which Bathsheba is bathing, because chatte meant ‘prostitute’ in the French slang of that time (ibid: 57–58).
Bathsheba frequently appeared in Books of Hours from the medieval era. These private prayer books, which allowed laypeople to follow along with the church’s canonical hours of prayer, included the seven penitential Psalms as a standard part of their liturgy. The superscription to Psalm 51 introduces it as ‘a psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came to him after he went to Bathsheba’. Illustrations of Psalm 51 in Books of Hours often included images of Bathsheba bathing, suggesting that was the catalyst which necessitated David’s penance.
In Bourdichon’s version, David is visible in the upper left corner of the illumination, watching Bathsheba from the window of the palace beyond the garden wall. The direction of Bathsheba’s eyes, turned to the right while she cocks her head to the left, suggests she is aware of his gaze. But David would not be able to see much from his vantage point; only her back would be visible, with her hair covering even that.
Louis XII, who was infamous for his infidelity and sexual appetite, likely enjoyed and was titillated by this view of Bathsheba (Kren 2005: 57). Now we—the contemporary viewers—are the voyeurs of this Bathsheba, who is presenting herself openly, even brazenly, to us. Such a view depicts her bath as a seduction and her as a seductress.
References
Kren, Thomas. 2005. ‘Looking at Louis XII’s Bathsheba’, in A Masterpiece Constructed: The Hours of Louis XII, ed. by Thomas Kren and Mark Evans (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum)
