This little piece of religious art has some members of Warr Acres Catholic church up in arms. It seems where some see an abdomen others see a well endowed savior. What do you think?
Permalink Reply by IanJ on April 20, 2010 at 10:02am
Alright, everyone gather around for a quick lesson in art history...
The "Byzantine Style" was the early Christian painting standard from 1057-1453 and was characterized but a unique anatomical look. Accurate anatomy in painting, as well as perspective and depth, didn't have it's foot hold in art until the Renaissance.
At the time it was traditional for an aspiring artist to apprentice with an established one. Typically what they would do is give the apprentice a book of drawings and the apprentice would copy those until he was able to reproduce the style consistently. This is part of the reason many of the figures are distinctly unique to this style and remained relatively consistent for centuries. It became common for patrons to request specific images so the artists would reproduce the same scenes over and over again. The crucifixion of Jesus was a popular choice.
Stylistically speaking, the Byzantine period was known for it's use of gold leaf, delicate limbs, elongated figures and linear calligraphic shaping of garments. All of which can be seen above. In fact this particular scene is represented dozens of times.
Here are some sample from GIUNTA PISANO
Crucifix
1240s
Tempera on wood
Santa Maria degli Angeli, Assisi
Crucifix
1240s
Tempera on wood
Santa Maria degli Angeli, Assisi
This one is noticeably similar by another Byzantine artist.
Crucifix with scenes from Calvary
mid-13th century
Panel, 247 x 200 cm
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
So does the original painting Kevin posted have a Jesus penis? Probably not, reproductions of Byzantine works are especially popular these days amongst churches. Did the painter totally walk into this? Yep.
Permalink Reply by IanJ on April 20, 2010 at 10:13am
Here's a non-Jesus penis/abdomen one
Theotokos of Vladimir
12th century, icon,
tempera on wood, 113.6 x 68cm
This is a traditional "Virgin Mary holding Baby Jesus" image and is a popular painting used to show Byzantine art. Note the freaky looking baby Jesus. For some reason it was common to depict babies using scaled down adult proportions. Evidently, no one noticed, for a really long time, that infants don't actually look like that.
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