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Voyeurs and Immorality:
Childhood Games as Sexual Metaphors
Blindman’s bluff and swinging are both associated with children playing, but in France during the eighteenth century, paintings depicting these activities are more sexual than one could imagine. The rococo period consists of many pastoral images of men and women interacting in games, luncheons, and scenes of passion. These paintings were, according to Donald Posner in his article “The Swinging Women of Watteau and Fragonard,” “carefully constructed. . . pictorial patterns and motifs that conveyed narrative, psychological, or allegorical meanings.” (Posner 76) The paintings of this time of men and women partaking in leisure games should not be read as innocent play, but as erotic images commenting on youth and love at the time. This can especially be seen in images depicting women swinging and men and women playing blindman’s bluff.
The themes of men and women at youthful play disappeared during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, “ . . . when they could not be absorbed very usefully into the realms of religious and philosophical imagery that dominated those times.” (Posner 75) As I have demonstrated in my previous presentation, women and sexuality, especially in the Renaissance, were looked at as unfavorable subjects. Women were often depicted in a negative way as sex crazed, thus warning the viewer against the power of their sexuality. In the eighteenth century the specific portrayal of women changed. According to Posner, the people of the time were becoming less censorious, and more willing to accept sexuality as a natural part of their lives. The games shown in the eighteenth century paintings and their depictions “ . . . provided a space in which behavior and physical expression were given new liberties.” (Milam 545)
Also seen in the rococo period is the abundance of pastoral landscapes. Although landscapes had always been present in art, their popularity increased during the eighteenth century. According to Mirjam Westen in her essay, “The Woman on a Swing and the Sensuous Voyeur: Passion and Voyeurism in French Rococo,” “ . . . nature ha[d] been depicted as the ideal opportunity for the upper classes to withdraw from the world into intimate private surroundings.” (Westen 72) Scenes at the time showing country life are not representing peasants at play, but the escapist fantasy for the upper classes at the time. These were places where the elite could abandon courtly etiquette and fraternize without cares, while being able to pursue members of the opposite sex. This can be seen in the rise of the voyeur and swinging motifs at the time.
At the start of the eighteenth century in France, women on swings became extremely popular. Watteau and his followers were the main proponents of the theme, and their paintings often showed scenes that depicted leisurely life. On the surface, swinging was a pastime for young lovers. The scenes are often thought of resembling a man’s courtship behavior in control of a passive woman. However, the depiction of swinging in these art works also has become associated with lovemaking. According to Posner, “[s]winging not only quickens the amorous heartbeat; it even more obviously sets the body in rhythmic motion. Naturally, it came to serve as a quite specific erotic metaphor.” (Posner 79) In these paintings swinging then becomes not an innocent enjoyment, but one associated with sexual delight. Posner also introduces the idea of swinging as associated with the game of love. Posner suggests that, “[w]oman’s inconstancy in affairs of the heart was one of the most popular association made with swinging. . .” (Posner 76) Swinging depicted the changes of the heart and the fickleness of women.
Jean-Honore Fragonard’s The Happy Hazards of the Swing, is a perfect example of a painting showing a woman on the swing that is associated with sexual metaphors. Fragonard’s painting, completed in 1767, depicts a young woman who is being pushed in a swing by an elderly man in the background. Surrounded by heavy foliage the swing has reached its highest peak. As the woman’s skirts billow up and her shoe is kicked off, a man can be seen in the rose bushes in the bottom left-hand corner of the painting. There is also a statue of Cupid with his finger over his lips making a silencing gesture, and another statue in the background depicting cupids riding on a water-chariot pulled by dolphins. The scene is not just of a woman enjoying herself in the woods, but is sexually explicit.
A voyeur is an individual who derives sexual pleasure from observing other people. The man in the rose bush is such a man. He is shown hidden in the bushes in a half-sitting position that allows him to look under the skirts at the woman’s spread legs. His hidden position in the bushes allows the viewer to assume that he has gone unnoticed. The woman, however, seems to be aware of him and makes eye contact with him. She even kicks of her shoe, as if she is flirting. The inclusion of a voyeur is not the only erotic image Fragonard uses. The hat extended in the man’s arm can also be read as sexual imagery. According to Posner, the male hat was commonly used in the rococo period to hide an erection. Fragonard has shown the hat as coming off and according to Jennifer Milam’s “Playful Constructions and Fragonard’s Swinging Scenes,” “. . . the hat is off, indicating male abandon to excitement and passion.” (Milam 549)
Fragonard has also included cupids on the water chariot of Venus, which is an obvious connection to lust. The other statue of Cupid with the silencing gesture also suggests that the relationship between the two characters is to be kept a secret from the man pushing the swing. Fragonard has also placed the scene in a dense forest not fit for swinging. This not only suggests a secret location for the lovers, but because of the artifice of the setting, according to Milam, the viewer cannot avoid the erotic imagery of the painting. One must also look at the time of day the painting depicts. According to Posner the time is early evening because of the use of “cool blue light.” (Posner 85) Nature scenes during this time were usually depicted as being in the afternoon. Posner states, “By changing the traditional hour of the game, Fragonard suppressed the naturalistic content of the theme and amplified its symbolic character. Swinging here is emphatically associated with activities that mostly occur after the sun goes down.” (Posner 85)
Jean-Antoine Watteau was another French artist, who in the eighteenth century painted women on swings. In his painting Shepherds, completed in 1717, he includes a swinging couple in the upper left corner. Posner states that Watteau’s Shepherds “. . . compose a wonderfully rich set of variations on the theme of love and desire.” (Posner 77) The scene shows a group of men and women enjoying a day in the country. They are not from the country because their dress resembles upper-class urban citizens, and thus is a scene of leisurely delight for elites.
There are three groups of people shown in the scene. On the far right there is a man and woman dancing, in the middle a group of young people, and to the left a swinging couple. Watteau, like Fragonard, has also included sexual metaphors. If the scene is read from right to left one can see the progress of the day. The man and woman dance, and the group in the middle shows how the dance might be taken farther. The middle group depicts a man grabbing a woman’s breast, a man holding a bagpipe (which has often been associated with the male sex organ), and a dog licking himself. In the background the swinging couple is shown through a peephole. Watteau has now made the viewer the voyeur of the woman whose back is to the viewer. The scene is not as sexually explicit as Fragonard’s The Swing, but still comments on young lovers and their passion.
Watteau and Fragonard, both through the use of swinging, show how the pastime “. . . permitted occasions of sexual disorder where uninhibited positions revealed the body and spectators glimpsed views that were usually hidden from sight.” (Milam 545) Also at this time were depictions of young people playing familiar childhood games like blindman’s bluff. This game has been depicted in art sine medieval times and is often meant to symbolize the “folly of love.” (Posner 80) The game represents the blindness of love, along with the foolishness that goes along with the game of love. Scenes from the rococo period often show only two people at play, which, as Posner states, makes the game a pretence, “[s]ince only two grownups play, the girl knows she can only catch the young man.” (Posner 82) In eighteenth-century France, blindman’s bluff becomes not a child’s game, but one of love and sexual lust.
Another painting that depicts the game of love is Nicolas Lancret’s Blindman’s Bluff from 1728. A couple is placed in the center with the young man blindfolded trying to catch the woman. The woman is tickling him with a feather and tries to prevent him from finding her. The two are surrounded by a group of spectators who are involved in their own conversations or looking on. On the far left, a mother explains to a young daughter the rules of the game, and presumably of love. In the far right hand side another couple is shown in an intimate conversation. The scene is not as sexual as the swinging images, but can be seen as an example of young love at the time. Fragonard also depicts a similar scene in his Blindman’s Bluff from the eighteenth-century. This scene is set outdoors and shows a young maiden trying to find her mate, who tickles her with a piece of straw. Her right breast is exposed and there are little children who are watching on. This scene is much more sexual and comments even more so on young, courtly, passionate love.
Images from the rococo period in France did not only comment on favorite games, but on the game of love. By using sexual metaphors, artists of this time hinted at the passion of young love, a theme that had been suppressed in the Renaissance. These sexual metaphors were shown through the depictions of women swinging and couples playing blindman’s bluff. The portrayal of a voyeur in a picture is also often include, and painters even turn the viewer in the voyeur. This idea is not new, as men were often assumed to view women in art as objects. Even with society becoming less censorious, women were still caught in a role of being a sexual object , rather than placed in an empowering one.