Plate with Wife Beating Husband

Unknown

ca. 1480 · Copper alloy, wrought · Medieval Art

The scene on this copper plate is sometimes thought to represent Aristotle being ridden by Phyllis, but it is more accurately identified as a comic depiction of woman’s tyrannical rule. Its humor relies in part on the longstanding association between women and spinning. The object at the left of the plate represents a fixed distaff, which was used to spin wool by hand. Once spun onto a spindle, the yarn would be wound off with a cross-reel such as that held by the man. The fact that a man could be reduced to hank winding would alone have been quite amusing to medieval viewers, but that he has been reduced to a most embarrassing position and is in the process of being beaten - possibly for not correctly performing even this simplest of tasks - can only be viewed as a domestic satire. A plate of this size and depth could have served either as a charge on which to carry large portions of food to the table, or as a basin into which water could be poured.

Artist

Unknown

Date

ca. 1480

Medium

Copper alloy, wrought

Culture

Netherlandish

Department

Medieval Art

Credit line

Gift of Irwin Untermyer, 1964