1700s painter Georg Engelhard Schroeders painting Juno ( Allegory of the element air ) has been taken down from the guest dining room in the swedish Parliament House. First Vice President Susanne Eberstein (S) was disturbed that the woman in the painting is shirtless . The painting Venus ( Allegory of the element Fire) by the same artist has also been taken down .
For 30 years she hung in the Parliament guest dining room with her bare bosom.
But one day the deputy speaker Susanne Eberstein (S) had enough and had the baroque painter GE Schroeders painting of Juno taken down
Suddenly one day she was just gone. When TT asked around in where the painting went, the reactions were mostly embarrassed laughs and giggles . We usually change paintings sometimes, eventually became the official response .
And Schroeder Juno have been hanging in the dining room since 1983 , so it may be a valid reason . But something else hasnt been hung up . Now the walls instead are bare.
Nude woman
The dining room is used for official meals with foreign dignitaries , and according to one of the presidents - who prefers anonymity - it has been a little sensitive that with a nude woman on the wall.
- You have to think of the foreign guests , especially those from Muslim countries , declared the anonymous source.
But it was not the consideration of the foreign guests who finally sealed the fate of the Junos .
- I think it is more a feminist issue. Its boring with a bare-breasted woman when I sit at public dinners with foreign guests. I think it feels a little hard to sit there with men who look at us women, explained Susanne Eberstein .
((Personally I think the feminist excuse is very flimsy..very convenient.If she had left that out I would have respected the decision more.For me its just a beautiful work of art. What you think? A reasonable decision or just a woman being offended by the belief that men see a painting of a nude woman and immediately picture the women in the room nude? Wouldnt it make it a more masculinist issue? ))
