Potiphars Wife: Josephs First Love :: Art Essays Visual

Potiphars Wife Josephs First Love Potiphars married woman as seen through the eyes of Guido Reni comes to keep with her soft looking skin and tender face as she st ares longingly up at Joseph. Then her figure falls back into the painting as her pale flesh tones coupled with swirling velvet garments around her body create a surreal setting. She is at once real and unreal. Her features are relaxed, but her intentions are aggressive. Potiphars wife embodies the mystery Reni saw in women, capable of being at once threatening and innocent. Joseph, like Reni, is both opposed to Potiphars wife and at the same while his eyes linger on her face in an expression of unspoken desire. When she first asks Joseph to deception with her Joseph doesnt drawback because he thinks Potiphars wife is ugly to look upon, or has had her sexuality tainted by another man. Instead it is Josephs fear of Potiphars wrath that holds Joseph back. He claims that Potiphar ...neither hath he kept back any thi ng from me but thee, because thou art his wife how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against paragon?(Genesis399). However, just as Josephs figure lingers in shadow in Renis painting, so too do Josephs true feelings remain engrossed behind his words and actions. ...as she spake to Joseph day by day...to lie by her...it came to pass about this time, that Joseph went into the habitation to do his business and there was none of the men of the house there within(Genesis3910-11). If Joseph is capable of running a prosperous plantation in his masters absence, and has shown the ability to turn the disadvantage of being a knuckle down into a better life as chief overseer, why does he foolishly fall into Potiphars wifes trap? The answer is that he knows full well that entering into his masters home will result in another encounter with Potiphars wife, and another offer to lie in her bed. His excuse is that he has business to conduct, but as the overseer of the masters homestea d there is no shortage of men on a lower floor him that he could send to do business up at the masters house. Instead Joseph repeatedly returns to Potiphars wife, denying her advances, but at the same time aroused by her flirtations. In their final rendezvous Potiphars wife reaches out for Josephs garments and snags them in her hand.