The Long-Lasting Fascination With the Sensual Motif of Lady Godiva

Lady Godiva was an eleventh century Anglo-Saxon noblewoman and the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia. Lady Godiva was a pious, kind-hearted woman who supported many monasteries and churches and was upset at the wrongfully imposed high taxes on the tenants of her husband. In connection to this, she is mostly remembered in history through the legend which dates back to the thirteenth century of the Lady Godiva riding naked through the streets of Coventry. According to the legend, her husband told her that he will lower the taxes if she rides naked through the town. He probably thought she wouldn’t be brave enough to do it, but she did, covered only by her long, luscious hair. Out of respect, the people of the town shut their windows and shutters that day, as to not the see the naked lady, but one person, a man named Thomas couldn’t help himself and he did gander and thus the term ‘peeping Tom’ was coined.

Fig.1  John Collier, Lady Godiva, 1898

Fig.2  Jules Lefebvre, Lady Godiva, 1890

Scandalous and Shocking

The Lady riding naked through the empty cobbled streets of the medieval town is such an iconic motif, unexplored enough in the world of art, I feel. One iconic rendition of the motif that instantly comes to my mind is the 1898 romantic painting by John Collier seen in Fig.1. The painting is emblematic of the late Victorian romanticism. Eroticism meets morality in an aesthetically beautiful way. The Lady Godiva is naked but the painting shows her from the side-view so the nudity is not so shocking after all. There is more tenderness and less defiance in the face of the lady. She seems chaste and modest, even while doing something as scandalous and shocking as riding naked through town. Her long auburn hair matches the caparison that the horse is covered with. The warm tones infuse the painting with a touch of nostalgia for the bygone days, idealised medieval times. In contrast to thess warm shades of orange and red, the painting of the French painter Jules Lefebre from 1890, seen in Fig.2., has a dreamy, nocturnal mood with colder colours. The streets are oppressing, narrow and dark here. In contrast, the horse is white and the lady is white as moonlight herself, symbolising purity of her heart. Just like Collier’s Lady Godiva, Lefevre’s Lady is also shy, but she is not covered by her hair but by her arms, crossed over her chest. William Holmes Sullivan’s painting in Fig.3. shows the Lady from yet another angle, her golden hair cascading elegantly over her shoulder. She is throwing us a coy look over the shoulder as the horse is riding away slowly.

Fig.3  William Holmes Sullivan, Lady Godiva, 1877

Fig.4  Piero Tianli, Lady Godiva, 2025, oil on canvas

Continue reading in Premium and discover more about the long-lasting fascination with the motif of Lady Godiva including many other examples + the voyeuristic performance art inspired by the Lady Godiva legend of Vlasta Delimar.

Click HERE for the sensual delirium of Russian Symbolist Nicholas Kalmakoff

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