MAN IN THE MIRROR: FEMALE VANITY AND THE MALE GAZE IN LADY LILITH

By Jui Zaveri

Throughout art history, male artists have depicted their flawlessly beautiful female subjects as vain and self-obsessed, often gazing into mirrors, utterly captivated by their own reflection. The portrayal seems ridiculously convenient, as it opens the door for the predominantly male viewers to simultaneously sexualise and objectify the female subject on account of her moral inadequacy - if she looks at herself, why shouldn't he? 

While many male painters followed with their own versions of mirror pictures of female vanity, Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s Lady Lilith is considered to be the most influential of the genre.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882) was an English poet, illustrator and painter. He was also one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a self styled ‘reform movement’ of English painters, poets and art critics who wished to reinstate the highly detailed, brightly coloured compositions of Italian art. Lady Lilith was first painted using oil on canvas between 1866 and 1868 and then later altered between 1872 and 1873. The subject matter is instrumental in the presentation of the immorally vain femme fatale and her erotic power: in ancient Judiac mythology, Lilith, the first wife of Adam, was replaced by Eve as she proved to be unyielding and rebellious. She is associated with the seduction of men and is considered an evil and self-absorbed temptress. Rosetti seemingly adheres to this image of Lilith, who he paints in the foreground as a porcelain skinned, cold woman with luxurious locks flowing over her shoulder, sitting gazing into her hand mirror, utterly unaware of the male gaze and therefore both encouraging and justifying it. The white tones of her loose dress seem to flow and blend with her white skin, which is so smoothly rendered with the oils that it seems purposefully undefined, to create a jarring contrast with the minutely detailed flaming golden hair, the scarlet lips and the crimson ribbon. The heavy colour contrast and the symbolism of the colour red draws attention to all these things and overtly highlights the danger of her seductive sexuality.

The painting is full of symbolism, which helps build the image of Lilith as a treacherous, narcissistic woman, facilitating and condoning her objectification by the male viewer. Her white dress is loose and uncorseted, something that was directly synonymous to promiscuity and immorality in the Victorian Era, and her untied hair equates her to a ‘Fallen Woman’. This derogatory term was formerly used to describe women who had fallen from God’s grace by losing their virginity outside marriage and was closely linked to prostitution.

The final condemnation of Lilith as religiously subversive, and therefore fair game for the male gaze, comes from her implied rejection of Eden in favour of her own reflection. In the far background, Rossetti features a paradoxical mirror, which reflects both the candelabra before it as well as the outside, giving it the appearance of a window at first glance. The outside view is of bright, lush greenery used to connote the Garden of Eden and fruits of virtue denied to Lilith. But just as Lilith is shown to be wholly uninterested in the viewer, she is to this equally impassive - her concerns revolve wholeheartedly around herself and nothing more.

However, in the modern world, the figure of Lilith has evolved. When looking at her story from a feminist perspective, she embodies independence and strength, wielding her beauty as a tool to preserve a sense of autonomy and control, defying both the partriarchal figures of Adam and God. Whether intended by Rossetti himself or not, a whole new layer of meaning is added to his painting through the lens of gender politics. His Lilith’s impassivity to the male viewer could just be the ultimate power move, signalling her superiority and the insignificance of a man in her narrative.