2 - Motherhood as Monstrosity: The Moissac Femme-aux-serpents and the Transi of Jeanne de Bourbon-Vendôme

Summary

The woman stands with her head bent down and turned slightly to her right (Fig. 8). Her thick locks of hair continue this movement as they snake down and out over her chest and shoulders. One lock on her left side stands out as it extends straight down, crosses over the prominent horizontal bars of her ribs, and leads to her breast. Here the shape of the tip of that lock of hair is repeated, reversed, magnified, and multiplied as the heads of two snakes that are attached to the woman's breasts. The snakes’ bodies loop up and over her bent-up arms and then trail down around her legs. The loops in their bodies form a line with the woman's bent elbows and this line draws attention to her navel, positioned just below on the otherwise empty space of her abdomen. Its prominent mark is further emphasized as it is framed by the angled shapes of the snakes’ bodies above and by angled lines in her groin below. These lines extend the downward movement initiated by her head and hair as they lead down between her thighs to where another creature, currently little more than a blob but conventionally identified as a toad, attaches itself to her genitalia.

The line formed by the woman's elbows and the snakes’ bent bodies is extended, and their rounded forms are repeated and inflated, by the bloated belly of a demon that stands to the woman's right side. Its big belly extends towards her and the prominent mark of its navel associates its swelling body with her form. It reaches out to grasp her right wrist, and the locks of her hair extend the line of its gesture up into her face. This line also suggests her line of sight, staring down first at the demon's hand on her arm and then at its distended abdomen. Above this line, the shape of its belly is repeated by another rounded form, another toad, that extends from its face and points back to hers.