The Surprisingly Sexual Side of Medieval Christian Art
In an Artnet News article published on 2026-02-14, writers discuss how medieval Christian art sometimes depicted Christ’s side wound in crucifixion imagery as resembling a vulva, arguing the resemblance was intentional. Met Cloisters curators Melanie Holcomb and Nancy Thebaut connect this imagery to the exhibition “Spectrum of Desire: Love, Sex, and Gender in the Middle Ages,” noting medieval viewers could understand Christ’s body as encompassing both male and female qualities. The article cites the Prayer Book of Bonne of Luxembourg (before 1349), attributed to Jean Le Noir and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, describing a roughly 2-inch-long depiction of the wound and identifying Bonne of Luxembourg (married in 1332; died of plague in 1349) as the manuscript’s owner.
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This story was covered in Markets on Fire, Sacred Art Gets Spicy