It is one of the most disturbing paintings I have ever seen. Five naked women staring at me; disproportionate, disfigured, dark faced, primitive. They are terrifying. As they should be. They are prostitutes.
The scene is a brothel in Calle de Aviñón in Barcelona, and the artist used to visit this brothel as a student. Pablo Picasso’s 1907 “Les Demoiselles d'Avignon” is as disturbing today as it was among contemporary artists more than a century ago. It inspired early cubism, ushering in a revolution in the art of the twentieth century. By applying classical features of nudity, drapery and fruits, Picasso anchored the painting in tradition, yet shattered the safety with these hostile figures.
Prostitutes should provide a sexual fantasy. But the women in Picasso’s brothel are apathetic and unapproachable. And although it would be another few years before Sigmund Freud would coin the term ‘castration anxiety,’ these demoiselles express exactly that ancient fear of emasculation or impotens. It would be a recurring theme in the first decades of the twentieth century.
Picasso initially meant the painting to be an allegory of venereal disease, sinfulness and mortality. In early studies for the painting, the whores are accompanied by a sailor and a medical student. The student holds a skull; an obvious reminder of sickness and death. Going to a whorehouse is a discouraging experience, involving the obvious risk of disease.
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| Early study for Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. On the left, a student enters with a human skull. |
In the beginning of the twentieth century, the venereal disease of syphilis had been on the rise for decades. Although records of prevalence are inadequate, syphilis had probably been one of the largest public health burdens in Europe since the initial identification in 1494. During the scourge of the 1500s, it had spread through a war torn Europe by the movements of troops. Causing skin ulcerations, sores and later madness and heart disease, syphilis was described as one of the worst afflictions to man. A treatment with mercury compounds was often more devastating than the disease itself, and the term “a night with Venus, a life with Mercury” would scare most people from extramarital activities.
At the same time, neurology was on the rise as a scientific discipline. The late stages of syphilis was an obvious object of interest, because the disease infects the central nervous system. In fact, two very important clinical tests, still used by clinicians today, were originally developed to diagnose neurosyphilis; the Romberg test and the pupillary light reflex.
Credited as 'the first clinical neurologist', Moritz Heinrich Romberg (1795 - 1873) developed a maneuver to examine position sense (proprioception). In late stage syphilis, the disease will enter the central nervous system and cause degeneration of the spinal cord (known as tabes dorsalis). This will cause loss of position sense in the legs and feet. In Romberg's maneuver, the patient is asked to stand with feet together and eyes closed. In order to maintain balance without the aid of vision, the patient relies on proprioception; he needs to sense where his feet and legs are, and this sensation is led to the brain via the posterior columns of the spinal cord. A degeneration of the spinal cord, as present in neurosyphilis, will cause the patient to lose his balance and fall. The Romberg test is still in use today as an examination of neurodegeneration, for instance in multiple sclerosis.
Ophthamologist Douglas Argyll Robertson (1837 - 1909) introduced the pupillary light reflex as an examination of the nervous system. In a healthy person, pupils contract when exposed to bright light. They also contract (accommodate) when focused on a near object, for instance while reading. In patients affected with neurosyphilis, Argyll Robertson observed pupils contracting normally on a near object, but not contracting when exposed to bright light. Now known as Argyll Robertson pupils,this finding is a highly specific diagnostic for neurosyphilis. Today, the pupillary light reflex is a basic screening test in every physical examination.
Consequently, to a medical student visiting a brothel in Barcelona in 1907, venereal disease was a very palpable risk. “Les Demoiselles d'Avignon” merges sexual desire with the fear of death in an unmistakable horror.
Incidentally, that same year arsephemanine was synthesized for the first time in Paul Ehrlich’s laboratory in Germany. Two years later, its effectiveness as an antisyphilitic compound was discovered in the same lab. In 1910, the drug was marketed as Salvarsan, and until the introduction of penicillin in the 1940es, Salvarsan and Neosalvarsan were the drugs of choice in the management of syphilis. These advances were based on another German discovery; the identification of Treponema Pallidum as the bacterium causing syphilis. In effect, arsephemanine was the first modern antimicrobial drug in the history of infectious diseases.
None of this really mattered to Picasso. The brothel in Calle de Aviñón was in every sense far away from German laboratories and scientists. The prostitutes were terrifying. The fear of disease and death was very real.
In the final painting, the sailor and the student are left out. This may be the true genius of the painting. By leaving out the clients, whoever looks at the painting, becomes the client. I am the voyeur, and the whores look at me judgingly. I disgust them. As I should; I am the client in a whorehouse. And now, you are too.
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Porter R: The Greatest Benefit To Mankind - A Medical History of Humanity from Antiquity to the Present. HarperCollinsPublishers. 1997
Freud S: The Interpretation of Dreams. 4th Edition. Imago Publishing. 1942
Freud S: Some Psychological Consequences of the Anatomical Distinction Between the Sexes. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis. 1927
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