Capricorn by Max Ernst, 1948, Bronze, National Gallery. As we see in Ernst’s sculpture, bull-king cannot share the throne with his wife – he is too tremendous (his throne uniquely belongs to him). And he is so psychologically despotic that he can reproduce only through daughters. He couldn’t tolerate the presence of a boy, the future king near by, although he desperately needs a male successor. For him to look at a male child can only mean one thing – to see in the child’s eyes a reminder about his, king’s, death, but death cannot happen to him – he is the only one, he is immortal, at least he deserves to be. But, as Ernst suggests, he can tolerate on the very margin of his throne a daughter who is already marked by her only function – to reproduce for the sake of her father, to inseminate the future with his genes. Her little breasts are not real, as a hysterical pregnancy they are just markers of her functional role in the life of her father – the bull-king.
Posted on: Wed, 02 Apr 2014 14:03:00 +0000
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