Women firefighters are already often called sapeuses-pompières.
Decades after other French-speaking countries adopted feminine names for professions, the official guardians of the language in France have also backed the change.
The Académie française, whose members are known as “immortals”, has said it has no obstacle in principle to such a “natural evolution” of French.
In its report it said “the academy considers that all developments aiming at recognising in language the place of women in today’s society can be foreseen, as long as they do not contravene the elementary and fundamental rules of language”…
(“Feminine job titles get go-ahead in France,” BBC.com, 3-1-19)
Examples — Masculine/Feminine:
professeur/professeure
auteur/auteure-autoresse-autrice
préfet/préfète (prefect)
député/députée (MP)
avocat/avocate (lawyer)
procureur/procureure (prosecutor)
le juge/la juge
le ministre/la ministre
le médecin/la médecin (doctor) [“médecine” would be confused with “medicine”]
chef/cheffe
écrivain/écrivaine (writer)
ingénieur/ingénieure (engineer)
sapeur-pompier/sapeuse-pompière (firefighter)
(c) 2019 JMN.
The Screaming “Caravaggio”
“Judith and Holofernes” which was found in an attic in Toulouse, France 2014, will be auctioned in June. Credit Cabinet Turquin.
Eric Turquin, art dealer: “Look at the execution of the lips, the way the chin and eyelids are painted… It belongs to Caravaggio. How could it be by anyone else?”
Keith Christiansen, MOMA-NY: [Contains details too crude to be by Caravaggio, including the] “concentric wrinkles of the old servant’s face.”
Gianni Papi, University of Florence: [The head of Holofernes is] “too loaded, with those animal teeth” [to be by Caravaggio].
James Bradburne, Pinacoteca de Brera, Milan: “The touch of the brush screamed out Caravaggio,” [referring to the delicacy with which Judith’s left cuff is painted].
(Quotations are from Scott Reyburn, “Is That a Real Caravaggio? It’s All in the Detail,” NYTimes, 2-28-19)
I have limited interest in fights over attribution of art works to old masters. However, the tumescent rhetoric swirling around the disturbing painting in question attracted notice. The discussion doesn’t live up to my expectations in the matter of scholarly debate. It rings shrill and opportunistic. Consider that Marc Labarbe, an auctioneer, found the “spectacularly well-preserved 17th-century canvas” in an attic in 2014. Mr. Labarbe will auction the painting “in collaboration with” Mr. Turquin, the art dealer quoted above saying, “How could it be by anyone else?” They hope it will sell for between $115 and $170 million. The auctioneer and art dealer (and perhaps someone they represent) have money
riding on the attribution of this pristine canvas to Michelangelo Merisi (1571-1610), the brawling murderer known as Caravaggio, who also painted well. And money screams.
(c) 2019 JMN.