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I started this discourse on IG and got made fun of so maybe bsky is a better place for it. Why do some statues have their genitals out while others don’t!? I specifically noticed this at the Vienna Hofburg where there are a suite of statues depicting Hercules’s feats. Some have loincloths and… 🧵

15/10/26, 8:30 am0 reposts10 likes

Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪

@nicoleackermans.com

… others don’t. I know it’s usually depicting virility but the choice is not uniform between statues. One could argue they’re just representing anatomy but the strategic loincloths beg to differ. Mostly the animals have their bits out. Some art historian please explain!

Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪

@nicoleackermans.com

It’s hard to see but in this one, Cerberus’s bits are out in full detail while Hercules is covered. What’s the choice there? I’m not against showing anatomy in art by the way, just curious about the choices!

Dr. Headbutt 🌈🧪

@nicoleackermans.com

Look, I don't know why my brain works the way it works. Anyway, here's a pic of me posing with Cerberus's behind

Dean Hamilton

@tyburntree.bsky.social

Not sure when that statue was done but after the Protestant reformation, the Catholic Church In 1563, passed a decree banning all "lasciviousness" in religious imagery.

Dean Hamilton

@tyburntree.bsky.social

Not sure about these statues but the ones across Rome are often fig-leafed. They were castrated by various Popes (most notably by Pius IX) and plaster fig-leaves affixed to the missing genitalia. Here's a pic I took last year of the Fontana del Moro, and one of Hercules in the Vatican Museum.

Dean Hamilton

@tyburntree.bsky.social

Weirdly enough, apparently penis size was also an issue for Greco-Roman statuary. Small genitalia were an indication of civilized peoples - someone not overtly driven by primal lust or base instinct - a refined person. Large genitalia were indicative of a baser person, a barbarian or outsider.