Oh dear

[ellid]

As ridiculous as this sounds, I can see why the parishioners of this church find this particular icon a bit much.

Comments

[fitzw.livejournal.com]

I can't -- I can't actually see any images of the icon.

[ellid.livejournal.com]

Oh dear....

SPOILER

*the way Jesus' abdomen is drawn makes him look, um, very well endowed....*

[fitzw.livejournal.com]

Yes, well, I'm familiar with the style of iconography. It's rather old.

[samantha-vimes.livejournal.com]

I understand them thinking the abdomen looks like a giant willie.

I DON'T understand them not walking out weeks ago, at the minimum, to protest the Vatican's handling of the sexual abuse of children by clergy.
Their children's safety is not as important as not ending up snickering at a religious icon. I don't get it.

[kamion.livejournal.com]

If someone had not said it I would not have associated the seams in the loincloth with a penis, this seamn, may be just stiches of needlework is on the side too.

but you must have a very pervy mind to think this stylish almost cartoonish picture pornographic.
of course best place to find bigots and pervs is in a church.

[aragon-san.livejournal.com]

Seams in the loin cloth? Uh, THOSE are not the problem!

Rather the giant penis ABOVE the loincloth that was supposed to look like a distended abdomen in this particualr style of iconography...

[kamion.livejournal.com]

well I am obvious not gutter minded enough, that was just the abdomen to me, and now you say it it has some dick-like appearence.
but as a phallus normally does not sprout from above the belly button I did not make the connection.

[xrian.livejournal.com]

The commenter on the original article was correct when he/she said this is a copy of a poorly painted copy of the original San Damiano crucifix.

On the original, even allowing for the fading of pigments with time, the lines on the abdomen are in approximately the same positions, but the lines are shaded differently and the color contrast is much less.

This icon is painted in a modern style, which tends to produce crisper outlines with higher contrast between the parts. This painting style is all over the place in modern icons, and it is so much in tune with modern artistic taste that probably most people -- including non-historically-oriented artists -- do not even realize that it is an *interpretation.* This style is generally more pleasing to the modern public, which is another reason artists produce it -- it sells well.

There's an easy solution: get someone to touch up the painting to make the lines less prominent. Some people will still see a "penis" now that it's been pointed out, but it would lessen the chances that an uninformed person would walk in off the street and immediately get that impression.

[stasia]

*cracks up*

Oh my. I'd date that, at least once.

I didn't see it at first, I'll admit that; I've seen enough old iconography to percieve the lines on his midriff as 'stomach lines'. However, I'm much happier with the penis idea, myself.

*glee*

Stasia

[embermwe.livejournal.com]

Yes, This. I perceive it as abdominal definition too. I can see what they mean when it is pointed out, but I guess my mind is really just not as low in the gutter as I thought.

[aragon-san.livejournal.com]

Holy s..t! O_O Yeah, I agree. You don't have to be particularly gutter-minded or cock-obsessed to immediately spot a giant erect penis pointing up from the loincloth to where the abdomen should be.

At first I thought someone painting this HAD to have done this deliberately (for whatever reason: critique at the catholic church or christianity in general - given, that there is quite lot to object to, lust for provocation, revenge etc.). Because I simply couldn't imagine someone fucking up a stomach in this particular iconic style this badly. And specifically unfortunate.

But now I do think that it was rather painterly incompetence and lack of anatomic knowledge in how to depict a distended abdomen. And everyone who has been sitting for hours and weeks on end before one of their own paintings can emphasize how blind one becomes to the literally "big picture" in the end. She probably wasn't able to see her own work halfway objectively when finishing. Which is why it's so important to lay the thing aside for a few days without looking at it before declaring one art as finished....