Dec. 30, 2003

In all events, the denial of the infantile observation, namely, that women have no penis, is unconsciously shared by all men (Theodor Reik, The Need To Be Loved, Bantam Book, New york 1964, p.170)

Most successful sublimations are, of course, part and parcel of cultural trends and become unrecognizable as sexual derivatives.
(Erik H. Erikson, Childhood and Society)

The number 3 is the symbol of the penis (Sigmund Freud, "Symbolism in Dreams", in Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis (1917), Lecture 10, in The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud, Tr. and Ed. James Strachey, Hogarth Press, London 1963, vol.XV, pp.154 and 163-4).

As we can see, the three little monks, on the bottom left in Duccio's painting, are equivalent to the three Maries on the upper right side of Caravaggio's painting.
Three little monks and the three Maries, being 3, both are the symbol of the penis.
Furthermore, the Child held by the Virgin in La Madonna dei Francescani is equivalent to the dead Christ in the Deposizione nel sepolcro. Both mean son = penis (See Karl Abraham, "The Female Castration Complex" (1920), in Selected Papers of Karl Abraham, Hogart Press, London 1927, p.343).
Therefore, the symbol of the fantasized female member is repeated twice in both paintings.
As Freud has shown, repetition of penis symbols means castration:

The terror of the Medusa is thus a terror of castration that is linked to the sight of something. The hair upon the Medusa's head is frequently represented in works of art in the form of snakes, and these once again are derived from the castration complex. It is a remarkable fact that however frightening they may be in themselves, they nevertheless serve as a mitigation of the horror, for they replace the penis, the absence of which is the cause of the horror. This is a confirmation of the technical rule according to which a multiplication of penis symbols signifies castration (Medusa's Head, 1940).

My interpretation of Caravaggio's Deposizione nel sepolcro, as an expression of female castration, is confirmed by the repetition of the penis' symbols.
However, in Caravaggio's painting, the acting out of castration is expressed not only by the symbols, but by the very act of deposition into the sepulcher, concomitant to the women's desperation, which illustrates in a very vivid way the acting out of castration. In Duccio's painting, the acting out is absent.
Apparently, Caravaggio's unconscious message is as follows: "The woman had a penis and it has been castrated", while Duccio's subliminal message is: "The woman had a penis, and she still owns it".
However, if we remember again what Freud has said: "multiplication of penis symbols signifies castration", in Duccio's painting, too, the acting out of castration is affirmed by the repetition of the symbols. The lack of the representation of the action in an explicit way is compensated for as follows: The three monks are not only 3 (a penis), but also very little, like monstrous dwarfs. "Little", like "dwarf" means "penis", too (S.Freud, "Symbolism in Dreams", in op.cit, p.157). I have shown in Biancaneve that Snowhite's seven little dwarfs are the symbol of her missing penis, as Rigoletto, the dwarf, is the symbol of Gilda's missing member.

A dwarf, in childish psyche and in our unconscious, is a child. Our unconscious does not know anything about hormonal deficency syndroms that are the cause for a human being's failure of growing up. Henceforth, a dwarf, like a child, is the symbol of the penis, too, as shown by Freud and by Abraham (op.cit.).

In Duccio's painting, the symbol of the missing member is repeated not two but three times, through the condensation of two penis' symbols in the same representation of the monks: the number 3, and their being "little", i.e. dwarfs. The further repetition is a compensation for the lack of action, which is, instead, very present in the Deposizione nel sepolcro . Duccio has uncounsciously intended emphasizing the phallic symbols as mean of repetition and, in this way - as stated by Freud - has confirmed castration: 1)  The Child in the lap of the Virgin. 2) Three monks. 3) Three dwarfs = children.

La "Madonna del cardellino" by Raffaello

In Raffaello's painting, female's castration is expressed in a similar way. Instead of three monks, we have two children and a bird. The bird is a very explicit symbol of the penis.

The work of art is the expression of a repressed tension, in our case the trauma of the female missing member as it is interpreted by little children. This tension is expressed through the mediation of the artists, who are the representatives of the collective mood - and are delegated to relief the sufferance inherent to the repression - through a language which is shared by all.
As cultures change, so languages change. A Gothic Senese like Duccio does not use the same language of Renaissance Raffaello or as the Baroque Caravaggio. However, they are considered great artists, because they could find the way to deliver the craved relief to their public through a language commonly shared. The common perturbance, that Freud has called "The Uncanny" ( Das Unheimliche), found its expression through a common language. As stated by Freud:

Another technique for fending off suffering is the employment of the displacements of libido, which our mental apparatus permits of and through which its function gains so much in flexibility. The task here is that of shifting the instinctual aims in such a way that they cannot come up against frustration from the external world. In this, sublimation of the instincts lends its assistance ("Civilization and its Discontents", (1930) in op.cit. Vol. 21, p.79).

Links:
Caravaggio, Clitorectomy and the Talion of the Woman
Caravaggio and La Madonna del serpente
Truth Is a Woman
Three Women: the Penis
Cinderella and "The Puss with the Boots"
Medusa, the Female Genital and the Nazis

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