There are certain subjects that repeatedly appeared in European art throughout the centuries: the most popular were mythological or biblical ones. Among the latter, especially in the Old Testament, we have quite lot referring to the stormy relations between men and women. Those topics were very popular among artists of…
In my previous post on “Roman de la Rose” I mentioned two illuminated manuscripts kept in the Polish libraries and available in the service Polona.pl. The Warsaw manuscript is a typical French production of the late 14th century, but the one now in Cracow is actually quite weird and problematic…
In contrary to the common belief, medieval art is actually full of erotic depictions, but if we need an actual image of the couple having sex, we should look for it in one of the Roman de la Rose manuscripts. It was a medieval best-seller, and so it seems strange…
Medieval art was full of various obscene motifs, especially in the margins of illuminated manuscripts and in the decorations of gothic cathedrals (for further reading I invite you to check out my previous posts on medieval Phallic Tree, or on some sculptures of the cathedral in Bourges). Many of those…
The choir of the Our Lady church in Cracow is decorated with sculpted consoles, but unfortunately they are barely visible, being placed very high, just below the church’s roof. But if we use binoculars we may see how interesting this gothic decoration is; and among those sculptures we can spot…