Wave 'em like you just don't care

In this post I would like to trace a series of associations which has led me to realize that for some time now, I have been unconsciously intrigued by women's arms.  It has come up in a number of posts without me actually giving it much heed.  It was only after writing my last post on the Marianne, including a reference to John Ashcroft's alledged uneasiness over giving press conferences before a topless woman called the Spirit of Justice, that I saw that I had been half-consciously developing a theme.

This is Ashcroft before the Spirit of Justice.  She is half of a pair; on the other side of the podium is a masculine figure called the Majesty of Law.  I can't find a good shot of him, but he appears to be holding a torch (torch-bearer!) with only one arm elevated.   The Jefferson Madison Center of Liberty has a photo of this "divine couple" here.  They also show a detail of the base:  it appears as though the woman, apparently nicknamed "Minnie Lou" is standing on clouds.  Two blank tablets, like the traditional image of the Ten Commandments, hide her left leg.  (The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was famously depicted in art on similar tablets--a new covenant indeed).  Emblems are affixed to the clouds, a sun perhaps, or a star.  The sun and the moon, perhaps.

The statue is 12.5 feet of cast aluminium, unveiled in 1933.  It is one of many works by C. Paul Jennewein to adorn the DOJ building.  Jennewein produced quite a bit of architectural sculpture and worked on several public monuments.  His style is rooted in classicism but these works reflect the Art Deco style.  (Jennewein was a noted practitioner of this fusion, called "Greco Deco").

Why her arms are raised, I cannot say.

Tanit votive stela, 2nd c BCE, Algeria.  Now in the Louvre, LoS photo.

From The hand is the whole:

"Tanit was symbolized by an ankh-like glyph with a triangular base surmounted by a bar and circle.  This in turn was surmounted by a symbol representing a crescent moon which also evokes the eye.  In the standard work on the symbol, F.O. Hvidberg-Hansen interprets this symbol as a woman raising her hands."

I was looking through this old post for a correlation with another post I've yet to write, when this passage jumped out at me.  I'd just finished the Marianne post and was struck by the repeated occurrence of an image of a woman raising her hands.  Unfortunately, I find no link with Tanit and Justice.  All the other goddesses associated with Tanit are fertility figures.  Tanit was a lunar goddess, patron of Carthage and a goddess of war, fertility and also, a virginal mother goddess.  She is probably a variation on the Ugaritic (Syrian) goddess Anat.  She has a storied history but again, not much to do with justice.  Her virginity is emphasized and she sometimes bears the title "Queen of Heaven".

National Black Theater (NBT)

I had already mentioned Tanit in connection to the above sculpture and the orant posture of prayer, which some interpret as a surrender to higher powers.  Unfortunately for our train of thought here, the NBT figure is male.  But the orant may help us sidestep that.  Unbeknownst to me at the time is that there is a is a specifically female version of the posture called orante, or orans:

The custom of praying in antiquity with outstretched, raised arms was common to both Jews and Gentiles, and indeed the iconographic type of the Orans was itself strongly influenced by classic [not to mention Egyptian] representations.

... the great majority of the figures are female, even when depicted on the tombs of men. One of the most convincing proofs that the Orans was regarded as a symbol of the soul is an ancient lead medal in the Vatican Museum showing the martyr, St. Lawrence, under torture, while his soul, in the form of a female Orans, is just leaving the body....The Acts of St. Cecilia speaks of souls leaving the body in the form of virgins.

In my article on the National Black Theater I emphasized the spiritual mission of that organization.  The satue of a man in prayer-like position before the sun and triangle, a symbol of divinity, reinforces that message.  The theme of virginity is also noted, but to what end I'm not sure.

The Sailor's Wife, Lloret del Mar.  LoS photo.

As I wrote in an earlier post (♀: Matter and Spirit, or Venus' hand mirror....):

Depictions of Venus Anadyomene also have her doing things with her arms:  wringing her hair, strategically placed for modesty or splayed out in erotic invitation.  I have thought long about the Venus of Lloret.  Her arms are like the Pisces fish or a yin and yang.  One is held up as if shielding the eyes, scanning the horizon, a covering, protective gesture; the other seeming to beckon a distant viewer.  They both shield and invite.  Modest yet alluring.

I had forgotten this post when I began my musings on this theme and had looked at all of the previous four images and posts before I recalled it.  But there it is.  I'm already wondering about arm gestures.  I'm still not sure what the Sailor's Wife here is up to....

The gesture I describe appears to me to have a spiritual significance:  a gesture of praise, supplication or communion.  I think it also has an erotic aspect which to be quite frank, is never far from sacred art or the act of prayer itself.  In my mind anyway!

This erotic aspect may come from other uses of the raised arms.  When angry or insecure, a person tends to cross their arms in a kind of symbolic barrier.  It is literally a closed figure.  The raised arms, on the other hand, are quite the opposite, the body is left exposed, vulnerable.  A woman's breasts are lifted, accentuated.  Raised arms are a gesture of surrender.  They are also waved about to attract attention, to bring someone nearer.   All these are definitely sexier than the closed door of crossed arms!  I also though of the Masonic distress signal, or "grand hailing sign of distress."  This gesture is also a variation on raised arms (Google it).

This is probably stretching the point but isn't distress a kind of erotic situation?  Damsel in distress and what not?  But Masons are men so this isn't so fitting.  I just threw that in for good measure because it came to mind.

Anyway, I don't have much more to say on the idea of raised arms at this point.  Just something that caught my eye.

Aucamville Project 9.5: A resolution of sorts

The human forearm discovered two weeks ago in a wooded area near the chapel of Notre Dame de Boisville has been matched to its owner (see A gruesome discovery).

La Dépêche du Midi reports that the methodical search by gendarmes and military personnel yesterday has turned up a body.  The badly decomposed cadaver was found 500 meters away from the arm on a slope covered with dense underbrush.  A loaded pistol was at his side and a bullet was lodged in the skull.  The arm appeared to have been carried off by a wild animal, which the reporter adds parenthetically:  was "surely a fox."  How he knows that I'm not sure.

The identity of the man hasn't been released, but he is said to have been an 85 year-old who disappeared from Toulouse on the 28th of August, 2010.  He was known to have been depressed and  suicidal.  Before his disappearance he left a note:  "You will never find my body."  The only mystery left now is how he ended up in this relatively secluded spot.  Did he know the place?  How did he get here from Toulouse, 40 kilometers away?  Good questions.

This area has been inhabited since time immemorial, so it's no surprise this macabre story is not without precedent.

As I mentioned before, a religious hermit who had taken refuge in the chapel was murdered here by two brothers.  According to a monograph on the chapel in my possession, the chapel was guarded by a recluse by the name of Frère Paul, who lived from alms.  He had already been robbed of some money and two chickens when he was found murdered a few days before Easter, 1754, his body thrown into a ditch.

But there is a more recent and similar case.  In May, 1999, a group of schoolchildren and chaperons were doing Spring cleaning on the banks of the Garonne near this chapel and found....a human leg and part of its thigh.  And they were only looking for soda cans and other detritus.

It was never matched to a body.  The police speculated it had been washed down following the annual high waters of Spring resulting from the runoff caused by melting snow in the Pyrenees.  A week later all that could be said was that the person was between 1.69 and 1.76 meters tall, between 35 and 65 years old....and wore a size 44 shoe.  The leg was wearing a black one.

But it gets weirder.  Three months later, in Moissac, a spine, three ribs and strips of flesh were discovered near the river.  "WTF?" I ask.  The Dépêche noted at the time that "Nature regularly exhumes human remains.  Last May 29th a leg was discovered at Verdun.  The only certitude is that it was a man's leg.  Other than that, the coroner isn't able to give any more clues that might help investigators."  It furthermore noted that the leg had not been identified....I don't know about the Moissac remains.

That is definitely some weird shit.  I mean, a vertebral column?

And there is another story, this time in Aucamville proper.  Just across the road from where I live there is a handsome house which has been empty since I moved in, and is falling into disrepair.  It was a tavern named the "auberge de Tail."  The full story is a bit hazy, but apparently the owner Altobella Capelleri had "hired" a homeless guy by the name of Georges Haurdin.  Now, this guy was a bit slow and was subject to the worst abuse.  He was eventually beaten to death after having been kept like a slave for an unknown period of time.  During this period he was beaten regularly and also raped and filmed by a "family friend" on several occasions.  His body, however, was never found.  As the story goes he was beaten and left for dead by Capelleri herself.  She then had her husband and son bring the body to the pigs, then afterward to a well, where it lay rotting for 6 months.  Unhappy with the progress of decomposition, they retrieved the body, burnt it in the tavern's kitchen chimney and then disposed of the ashes in various trashcans in Toulouse.  (Full story here).

No wonder the house lays falling apart.  Cursed forever.

Although Capelleri concocted an elaborate tale of an "accident", a son from her first marriage testified to her sadism, which included burning his penis with a cigarette.  What horror for this poor boy and his siblings, revisited upon a hapless vagabond years later.  The exact date of the murder is unclear, however; sometime between October, 1993 and July, 2004.

People began thinking of this when the arm was discovered, despite the years separating the events.  In any event, Capolleri was sentenced to 20 years in prison last September.

So.  A dismembered forearm, a floating leg, flesh, ribs and spine....and then this horrifying tale.  Long-time readers of LoS will see many familiar themes here, but I'll leave that for you to ponder.

Aucamville Project 9: A gruesome discovery

A pal texted me just a short while ago to alert me that a human forearm has been discovered in a wood near Aucamville.  The police are looking for the rest of the body, if there's one to be found, in an ever-widening circle around the chapel of Notre Dame de Boisville (post from July 1, 2010).

The article can be found here, but there's not much to be learned.  Dogs found it while their master was walking them in the woods, the arm has been sent off to be CSI'd and the police are looking for more clues.

Yow.  You know we've been a bit quippy about those Canadian feet.  A lot less funny when it's a kilometer or so from your house, a place I frequently go during Summer to relax and watch the sun go down....

Still, several bad puns present themselves:  It's Armageddon!  Notre dame de Brasville ("bras" being "arm" and rhymes with "bois"), Aux Armes, Citoyens!  We should stop by and lend the police a hand, etc.  All in poor taste, I know.  Sorry.

Finally, an historical tidbit.  Just before the Revolution, scandal rocked these parts when a religious mystic who had made this chapel his home was murdered by two brothers.  In a place this old, one need not dig too deep for histories of violence....

Jan. 20

Local rag La Dépêche du Midi reports that results of the DNA analysis should be ready tomorrow and that the arm is not from the ossuary adjacent to the chapel.  Depending upon the results, a major excavation may begin towards the end of the month. 

Investigators have also dismissed rumours about a student dissection gone wrong.  I'm not sure if this in response to a rumor or if they just want to head this one off at the pass!  I'm sure it's the former, which means I'm missing out on some good speculatin' down at the café!

Jan. 21

Update from the Dépêche.  The arm belonged to an adult male.  The police are currently compiling a list of missing persons, focusing on the two départements which meet at the area, but also looking at national cases.  A large search is anticipated with sniffer dogs and manpower.  The Margestaud creek and Garonne will be explored with a kind of sounding device.  A helicopter will add eyes in the sky.  A lot of excitement for such a quiet place.

This story has got me to thinking about dismemberment in history.  A missing hand has been a recurring literary device.

• I recently read The Lost Symbol, where it kicks off (punches off?) the "plot"
• ....this made me think of Luke Skywalker /Darth Vader....Vader is actually referenced in the book in what I took as a reference to the shared mythological resonance of a severed hand.  
• Captain Hook comes to mind.   
• The Monkey's Paw revolves around the magical power of not a human but a monkey's hand....which brings me to the Hand of Glory.   
• This guy has a neat collection about the HoG "and other gory tales about human hands."  
• And then there's Jesus, who according to some translations said:  "If your right hand offends you, cut it off...."  (Matthew 5:30; Mark 9:43).

Any other famous dismembered hands come to mind?