![]() ![]() By the medieval era, art commissioned by the Catholic Church mostly represented nudity as a sin it was used to depict people who’d been sent to hell.īut that began to change in the 1400s, when Italian artists-thanks to a mounting interest in antiquities and excavation-rediscovered classical Roman and Greek art. This story-which became integral to Christianity’s teachings-communicated to the religion’s flock that nudity was shameful. Early artistic depictions of the purported events show the once-nude figures sheathed in leaves that obscure their genitals, subtly representing original sin and a fall from grace. The duo, shamed by their nudity after eating from the tree of knowledge, “sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons,” as chronicled in the Book of Genesis. The plant’s cultural significance can be clearly traced back to the tale of Adam and Eve. It has became known as the “Fig Leaf Campaign,” one of history’s most significant acts of art censorship.īut the fig leaf’s role in art history doesn’t begin with Michelangelo. Their coverups of choice? Loincloths, foliage, and-most often-fig leaves. Soon after, the figure’s sculpted phallus was girdled with a garland of bronze fig leaves by authorities.Ħ0 years later, just months before Michelangelo’s death, the Catholic Church issued an edict demanding that “figures shall not be painted or adorned with a beauty exciting…lust.” The clergy began a crusade to camouflage the pensises and pubic hair visible in artworks across Italy. The work scandalized the artist’s fellow Florentines and the Catholic clergy when unveiled in Florence’s Piazza della Signoria in 1504. Take Michelangelo’s famous sculpture David (1501–04), a muscular, starkly naked depiction of its namesake biblical hero. ![]() And in large part, we have art history-and the artists determined to portray nudity even when it was considered taboo-to thank for that. It’s a plant that’s become synonymous with sin, sex, and censorship. Somewhat out of step with the general tenor of the book are sections on alcohol and the medical profession, with an excursion into heraldry as it touches the arms of the Urological Society of Australasia.Consider the fig leaf: a little piece of foliage that’s shielded the genitals of famous biblical figures and nude sculptures for centuries. She lifted the status of nursing to that of an honourable profession for women.Įlsewhere in the book are accounts of the lives of notable specialists in the field of urology from the 17th century to the 20th century. ![]() The last emerges as a brilliant woman, she spoke four languages, with good connections and a flair for organising. Other topics in the book include a chapter on Nelson's wounds and a potted life of Florence Nightingale. In fact only the well-off could usually afford the procedure and some surgeons became wealthy.Ī section on circumcision, male and female, touches on the medical, social and religious dimensions of this procedure. Surgically mortality was high, up to 45%, with fees to match. Skilled operators might achieve the result in a minute or less. The operation, even in the pre-anaesthesia times, consisted of cutting into the bladder from below which might require the assistance of four strong men to hold the patient still while the surgeon cut into the bladder and removed the stone. Later there was Isaac Newton, Benjamin Franklin, and Napoleon III of France who at least had the benefit of the then growing use of chloroform anaesthesia. Many noted historic figures with the condition are listed, starting with Samuel Pepys, the famous 17th-century diarist, with sidelights on his sexual adventures. Lithotomists ("stone cutters") practised for hundreds of years to remove the internally formed stones in the bladder in men, young and old, that caused suffering and often blockage of outflow. removing bladder stones, is revealed in his injunction that this activity is forbidden to physicians and should be left to "practitioners of the art". That Hippocrates knew about the possibilities about "cutting for stone", i.e. Many of the early talks describe the evolution of urogenital surgery from Hippocrates (460-370BC) but particularly from the 17th century. The title defines the theme of the book, but only insofar as most, but not all, deals with medical progress of the male problems of the lower urinary tract from the bladder onward. This elegantly produced book brings together the substance of a series of lectures given by the author to a number of medical societies in Australia and New Zealand over the years. ![]()
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