Gemini crossed arms imagery

[-JKP-]

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Now to get back to the pair, I think the man's short statue is due to botched perspective. Courtly images of a pair facing each other regularly force some depth by making the man smaller, while the woman's dress trails further down. This example from:

I think there might be another reason. I've been trying to figure it out. I come across it over and over and sometimes the difference in stature is very marked.

It may be iconographical... if she is his love interest, that would connect her to Venus, and if it is "Venus" in the allegorical sense, then she would be given reasonably nice clothes and higher "status" which would be indicated by being taller and sometimes better dressed and sometimes older.

So that was one idea... the other is that quite a few of these stories (and guides to the young) are about young men courting older women or rather, young women being courted by even younger men and, once again, this would result in her being drawn bigger than him. The image seems rather strange to modern eyes, but marriages were arranged, and you had to marry off your older daughters first or they might not get married at all. Or, it may be an allusion to Venus as a representation of sex/love (the generic love interest).


So... I'm not certain about the reasons, but I've seen so many images of courting couples where the women is specifically drawn larger I finally realized there might be some social reason for it.