Marcelle Hanselaar 'Rebel Women from the Apocrypha'

Marcelle Hanselaar
Rebel Women From The Apocrypha

Introduction
I initially learnt about these feisty heroines from early paintings and began researching their
stories out of curiosity. Not only are these women early feminists, standing up to male domination,
but what is so fascinating is the illogicality of these texts. They read like the uttering of an
oracle and have, throughout time, been open to many interpretations. I have given my own,
contemporary take as these themes are as relevant as ever. Assertiveness in women is still often
criticised or curtailed and I feel that these ancient, imaginary narratives give us a much-needed
energising subversiveness.
Marcelle Hanselaar, 2023
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The Split, Adam & Eve
etching / aquatint, 38 x 43 cm, plate size 20 x 25 cm, ed 30
After Lilith, Adam’s first wife had left him for not wanting to be subservient to him, I like
to imagine that Eve decided on a different pro-active approach. She steps out of Adam’s
body, sexy, dressed in net stockings and high heels, tenderly comforting Adam bemused and
fearful awakening to a reality not so under his control as he was promised. A little dog licks
comfortingly his toes while the maker watches without interfering.
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Temptation, Potiphar’s Wife
etching / aquatint, 38 x 43 cm, plate size 20 x 25 cm, ed 30
Potiphar’s wife lusted after Joseph, a young and beautiful slave in her household, but he
kept evading her. One day, when everyone in the house had gone to a festival, she pretended
to be sick in order to stay at home alone with him. When the seductress jumps up from her
bed to seize him, Joseph makes a hasty retreat and she grabs only his coat.
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The Taboo, the Witch of Endor
etching / aquatint, 38 x 43 cm, plate size 20 x 25 cm, ed 30
The woman soothsayer at the cave in Endor had been in great demand until King Saul
forbade fortune-telling under penalty of death. Yet Saul, in the darkest hour of his life,
asks such a creature to help him. All other remedies have failed him; no dreams or prophets
appear to him and he has been cursed by priests. The witch points out to this stranger that
she might be in danger of persecution as he demands of her what is forbidden. He reassures
her that she will be protected and its only when he asks her to bring Samuel back from the
dead that she recognises who he is.
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The Secret, The Queen of Sheba
etching / aquatint, 38 x 43 cm, plate size 20 x 25 cm, ed 30
The Queen came to Solomon with a great revenue, bearing many rich gifts as she wanted
to test him with hard questions. When the Queen enters Solomon’s palace, he is sitting on
a magnificent throne in a hall whose floor is laid out with crystal, something which she
had never seen before. Thinking the king surrounded by water, she lifts her dress so he sees
what he had heard, namely that she has hairy legs. He insults her by saying, “your beauty
is that of a woman, your hairy legs are those of a man”. She ignores his insult and begins
to ask him her questions.
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Genesis, Lilith, Queen of the Night
etching / aquatint, 38 x 43 cm, plate size 20 x 25 cm, ed 30
Lilith was Adam’s first wife who refused to lie under him and be subservient to him. They
quarrelled and she left him. She was therefore demoted to a nightly spirit who clings to
men but sleeps alone. Amongst other things she is considered the lover of the snake god and
can take on the shape of snakes. Her seductive beauty, especially her magnificent hair, is
mentioned as a warning for those who are tempted to embrace her.
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The Knowing, Sisera’s Mother
etching / aquatint, 38 x 43 cm, plate size 20 x 25 cm, ed 30
From the window, Sisera’s mother looked out, watching for his return, saying, ‘Why is his
chariot so long in coming? Why don’t we hear the sound of chariot wheels? Sisera’s nameless
mother and an attendant wait in vain for her son to return home from war. His mother muses
that the soldiers must be dividing the spoil, including “a womb or two for the head of each
man”. Her crude reference to the human spoil she anticipates prompts a parallel with what
Jael has done to her son.
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The Treasure, Sarah and Abraham
etching / aquatint, 38 x 43 cm, plate size 20 x 25 cm, ed 30
Abraham hid his wife Sarah in a box when abroad to conceal her from the Egyptian
custom officials. When they inquire about the contents he answers ‘barley’. “No”, they say,
it’s wheat.” “Alright”, Abraham says, “I shall pay the higher toll for wheat”. But then they
charge that the box contains pepper, then gold, then precious stones. Abraham gives in
every time. This behaviour arouses only suspicion and he is forced to open the box. When
the officials discover Sarah’s beauty, they inform the Pharaoh, who dispatches an army to
bring her to his Palace.
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The Last Laugh, Tamar
etching / aquatint, 38 x 43 cm, plate size 20 x 25 cm, ed 30
A woman infiltrating the power structure. Tamar ’s first husband died and - as was the
custom - she was to marry the second brother. But he refused, fearing that her offspring
would not be his, and he died as well. She was now instructed to wait until the third son
reached adulthood, but she was not given to him. So when her father in law’s wife died,
Tamar decided to force the issue. She veiled herself, sat at the roadside and when Judah, her
father-in-law saw her, he desired her but did not know who she was. She asked, in return
for their lovemaking, three tokens from him which, later on, when she was pregnant, she
showed to prove that he was the father. Thus, instead of being burned as a whore, Judah
gave Tamar her well-deserved position.
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The Condemned, Lot and his Daughters
etching / aquatint, 38 x 43 cm, plate size 20 x 25 cm, ed 30
Two angels in disguise came to town and Lot invited them to stay. The people of the town
demanded that Lot sent out his guest so that they could have their pleasure with them. Lot
defended their honour as their host. In order to satiate the towns peoples lust he pushed out
his daughters instead. The next day the cities of Sodom and Gomorra was destroyed because
of the sinful behaviour of its inhabitants, only Lot and his family were spared as they were
considered virtuous.
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Looking Back, Lot’s Wife
etching / aquatint, 38 x 43 cm, plate size 20 x 25 cm, ed 30
The next day the cities Sodom and Gomorra were destroyed, fire and brimstone rained from
the heavens and destroyed both cities and the lands around it. However Lot, his wife and
two daughters were the only ones to be saved. While they were fleeing into the desert, they
were warned by the angels ‘Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain or you
will be swept away’.Yet Lot’s wife did look back to that was lost and for her disobedience
she was turned into a Pillar of Salt.
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The Refusal, Queen Vashti
etching / aquatint, 38 x 43 cm, plate size 20 x 25 cm, ed 30
Queen Vashti was a queen of Persia and the first wife of Persian King Ahasuerus. When the
King was merry with wine, he commanded to bring the Queen before him wearing the royal
crown so he could impress the peoples and the officials with her great beauty. When she
point blank. refused to be ogled at by the drunken guests of the king’s banquet he dethroned
her for her dissent. The King later chose Esther to succeed her.
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Unguarded, Samson and Delilah
etching / aquatint, 38 x 43 cm, plate size 20 x 25 cm, ed 30
Samson was a god-fearing man of remarkable physical strength. He was in love with
Delilah who belonged to an enemy tribe. She was asked by her people to ferret out the
secret of his strength but each time she asked him Samson lied about the real source of his
strength. But at last he told her that his hair had never been cut and cutting it would sap
his strength. So when, after making love, he fell asleep on her lap she informed her tribe of
his secret and they came and cut off his hair and gouged out his eyes.
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Vindication, Judith and Holofernes
etching / aquatint, 38 x 43 cm, plate size 20 x 25 cm, ed 30
Nebuchadrezzar, king of Assyria, sent his general Holofernes on an expedition against
Palestine. A beautiful widow named Judith left the besieged city of B in pretended flight
and foretold to Holofernes that he would be victorious. Entranced by her beauty and wit
he invited into his tent, where she cut off his head as he lay in drunken sleep. She and her
servant hid it in a bag to take it with her to the city where it was nailed to the city walls.
When the army saw their leader’s head they panicked and dispersed.
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Beauty and the Beasts, Salome
etching / aquatint, 38 x 43 cm, plate size 20 x 25 cm, ed 30
Herod Antipas had imprisoned John the Baptist for condemning his marriage to Herodias,
the divorced wife of his half brother, but Herod was afraid to have the popular prophet
killed. After Salome danced before Herod and his guests at a festival, he promised to give her
whatever she asked. Prompted by her mother, who was infuriated by John’s condemnation of
her marriage, the girl demanded the head of John the Baptist on a platter, and the unwilling
Herod was forced by his oath to have John beheaded. Salome took the platter with John’s
head and gave it to her mother.
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The Untamed One, Jezebel
etching / aquatint, 38 x 43 cm, plate size 20 x 25 cm, ed 30
Jezebel is one of the most intriguing women in the Scriptures, a bloodstained yet strongwilled,
politically astute, and courageous woman. A Phoenician princess who worships
Baal, the pagan god of fertility, Jezebel marries King Ahab of Israel. She persuades him
to tolerate her alien faith, then becomes entwined in the vicious religious conflict that ends
in her death.When she hears her fate is sealed, Jezebel calmly and courageously prepares
herself for the inevitable. While a blood-soaked military commander gallops to her home
she paints her eyes with kohl, dresses her hair, and awaits his arrival in an upper window
of the palace. On arrival he orders her eunuchs to toss her out of the window and let the
dogs in the courtyard tear her apart and devour her body.
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Biography
Marcelle Hanselaar was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Growing up in the formal atmosphere of
a protestant, postwar country, proved, thanks to her drop-out/turn-on rebellion, a profound source
of inspiration for the recurring subject matter in Hanselaar’s work; namely the fierce and sometimes
troubled cohabitation with those raw desires, secret fantasies and uncultivated instincts and our
functioning in a civil society. Although Hanselaar studied briefly at the Royal Academy of Arts in The
Hague, her lust for adventure, guided by a quest for self-discovery, led her to years of travel, until,
in the early 1980’s she settled down in her studio in London where she still lives. Self-taught, she
started out as an abstract painter before turning to figuration. At the same time she became fascinated
by etching, its harsh, bitten line seemed to perfectly suit her subject matter. As an artist Hanselaar
looks for ways to express those illusive questions of who and what we are when the mask is off, and
how we appear when the mask is on. The shock effect of her work lies in the contrast of combining
her outspoken subject matter with the conventional medium of oil painting or etching. Both her
paintings and her prints display her delight and fascination with theatrical illusions and although
often peppered with a biting sense of humour, the works reveals her own vibrant understanding of
human nature, in all its animosity and fragility.
Hanselaar has exhibited her paintings and prints internationally, and can be found in private and
public collections worldwide including British Museum Prints Collection, London; The Metropolitan
Museum of Art, Print Collection, New York; V & A Prints & Drawings Collection, London; V & A
National Art Library, London; Whithworth Art Gallery and Museum; Ashmolean Museum, Oxford;
Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge; Clifford Chance Art Collection, London; The Viktor Wynd Museum
of Curiosities, London; Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania, US; University of Arizona, Tucson, US;
Sakimi Art Museum, Okinawa, Japan; Guandong Fine Art Museum, Guandong, China; Iraq National
Library, Baghdad; Meermanno Museum-House of the Book, The Hague; Soho House Amsterdam;
AMC, Amsterdam; Amsterdam Arts Council; Kunstcollectie; Gemeente Haaksbergen, NL; University of
Aberystwyth Print Collection, Wales; New Hall Art Collection, University of Cambridge; Clare Hall,
Cambridge; The Ned, London; Rabo Bank, London; Merrill Lynch, London; Risk Publications,
London; Mitsukoshi Ltd., London and Paintings in Hospitals, London.
“There are many people I want to thank for the way they support, encourage and inspire me:
my enterprising dealers, my second studio, Artichoke Print Workshop and all friends, colleagues,
collectors and curators who keep me on my toes and keep the dialogue flowing.”
Marcelle Hanselaar, 2023
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Published by Anima Mundi to coincide with Marcelle Hanselaar ‘Rebel Women of the Apocrypha’
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