La Mujer Barbuda by Ribera, 1631: a gender bender

Abstract

The picture (Figure 1) showing a markedly virilized central figure with an infant at the breast was painted in 1631 by Jose Ribera, a Spaniard living in Naples. It was commissioned by Ribera’s patron, the Duke of Alcala and in due course returned to Spain. It was exhibited in Paris and in the Royal Academy of San Fernando in the early 19th century and hung for many years in the Hospital Tavera in Toledo. It is now in the Museo del Prado, Madrid. Figure 1. La mujer barbuda by Ribera, 1631. The central figure poses a conundrum but a case for the diagnosis of the underlying medical condition which would explain all the features seen can be made from evidence in the picture. The medical history of this real named person is given in the Latin inscription on the stone tablets in the picture, enhanced in Figure 2. The inscription translates as follows: Look, a great miracle of nature. Magdalena Ventura from the town of Accumulus in Samnium, in the vulgar tongue Abruzzo in the Kingdom of Naples, aged 52 and what is unusual is when she was in her 37th year she began to go through puberty and thus a full growth of beard appeared such that it seems rather that of a bearded gentleman than a woman who had previously lost three sons whom she had borne to her husband, Felici de Amici, whom you see next to her. Joseph de Ribera, a Spaniard, marked by the cross of Christ, a second Apelles of his own time, by order of Duke Ferdinand II of Alcala, Viceroy at Naples, depicted in a marvellously lifelike way. 17th February 1631.Magdalena Ventura’s features show frontal balding, a luxuriant beard, coarse skin but no acne, masculine face and large but not acromegalic hands. …