The Circumcision of Christ, Friedrich Herlin (German), oil on panel (?), 1466, St. Jakob Church, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany
The Catholic Church has been obsessed with little boys’ penises for a long time. They even have a feast day all about a penis: The Feast of the Circumcision of our Lord on January 1st. Yes, we need a feast day to celebrate Jesus’ brit milah, and to meditate upon his first shedding of blood and how it connects to his crucifixion…or something like that (there are reasons your blog-runners are not Christians). And of course, this led to art, like the painting above. Ridiculous, gold-leafed church-worthy scenes of the majesty and pathos one comes to expect on the event of removing the foreskin from a baby. Here is a close-up of the painting so you can dwell upon the visage of the unfazed holy infant as he is about to get his oddly-cylindrical penis’ foreskin chopped off.
Fun fact: see the men wearing funny hats? Those are Jews. Christian artists had a habit of giving Jewish characters in New Testament scenes bizarre fantasy hats to other them from the good, redeemed Christian characters and their halos. Way to class up your racism, guys.
Fun fact #2: due to the lack of relics Jesus left behind, since the Middle Ages various Holy Prepuces—that is, Holy Foreskins—have been venerated in Churches throughout Europe, though sadly in modern times they have all been stolen or destroyed. So gone are the days of Catholics peregrinating to shrines to worship a bit of desiccated skin from a little boy’s penis, though I hear little boy penises are still popular in some Catholic churches today.
