Self-Flagellation

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French master of BDSM illustration George Pichard's illustration of a nun whipping herself as the cover of 18th century philosopher Denis Diderot's polemical novel La Religieuse.

Pichard's style is immediately recognizable: he draws tall, well-endowed women, whose starry eyes with excessive make-up give them a teutonian and gothic look. Apart from being a master of the erotic genre, Pichard also illustrated countless books and magazines, drew humor cartoons and made lithographs in his more than 40-year long career. He died in June, 2003. (via)

The death of his sister, a nun, from overwork in the convent may have affected Diderot's opinion of religion. She is assumed to have been the inspiration for his novel about a nun, La Religieuse, in which he depicts a woman who is forced to enter a monastery, and suffers at the hands of the other nuns in the community.