johanoosterman:Harvesting penises and the sex life of nuns and monksTwenty years ago, at one of my f
johanoosterman:Harvesting penises and the sex life of nuns and monksTwenty years ago, at one of my first international conferences (Louvain, Manuscript painting before Van Eyck) at least one of the papers made an unforgetable impression, the one by Jos Koldeweij, art historian from Nijmegen (now my university). He showed a series of very scabrous border decorations from a Roman de la Rose Manuscript (ParisBN francais 25526). The entire manuscript is online in gallica.fr and the borders are extemely inventive. And still now, after all those years, the scabrous monks and nuns draw most attention as they are so unusual, so surprising, showing the libertarian face of medieval artists. -- source link