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Ugly Renaissance Babies

Believe it or not there is a blog devoted entirely to this unusual subject. The comments accompanying the images may be on the juvenile side but the paintings are real.

More than a decade ago, my sister and I suffered from paroxysms of hysterical laughter in front of a Biblical painting containing an incongruously mature looking Baby Jesus in Mary's lap. The infant reminded us of an adult of our acquaintance. Our faces red and tears running down our cheeks by the efforts to suppress the hilarity we attracted the attention of a museum guard nearby who looked askance at our unseemly behavior. We evaded eviction by quickly moving on to another gallery.

There may be a cultural / religious explanation for why indeed some of the babies in Madonna paintings were  so homely. I do not know and neither does the blogger as is clear from the following comment on page 3.

chicagonorth asked: it's inaccurate to call this "ugly Renaissance babies," because most of the images are from Byzantine/Medieval/Proto-Renaissance periods…

This is very true! Though, in our defense, a blog called “Ugly Byzantine/Medieval/Proto-Renaissance Babies” doesn’t really have the same ring to it.

Regardless of the specifics, I think we can all agree that ugly babies are both timeless and hilarious.

Perhaps someone with knowledge of this artistic phenomenon will leave an explanation in the comments section. (link via Anna Levine)

Ugly Renaissance Baby

 

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3 responses to “Ugly Renaissance Babies”

  1. Brock

    The generally accepted reason for the appearance of the babies is that, in depicting an image of Christ, it was considered offensive to portray him as anything less than a fully formed human. Hence, the “tiny-person” phenomenon. Additionally, it wasn’t so easy to have a newborn sit for the time required to be used in a painting, which might also explain some of the, ah, unusual anatomy. Similarly, the odd depiction of the female anatomy of the Virgin Mary is generally because male models were used as a reference, with the lady-parts being tacked on at the end.
    Also, it should be noted that I AM the juvenile blogger of Ugly Renaissance Babies, and that I do happen to know what I’m talking about — I just prefer irreverence. Your mileage may vary.

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  2. Ruchira

    Brock: I am sorry if I came across as “irreverent” towards you. But you do hide your background knowledge pretty well on the blog. I myself had heard the same explanation but did not mention it here either. Anything for getting mileage on blogs, eh?
    Part of the reason was to elicit input from readers in the comments section which did come along elsewhere. One of them was good enough that I published it as a stand-alone follow up post. See the comments thread there.
    You do have a great eye and a fabulous collection on the photo blog.

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  3. Norman Costa

    @ Ruchira, Elatia, Dean:
    So the only fix I see, without doing what Dean did is to make sure you hit ENTER after pasting text.
    However, if the problems begins anew, I suggest Ruchira delete the immediately preceding comment and re-post the missing text. If still a problem, then delete the earlier posts, one by one. The point is that there may be non-printing characters in prior posts that are causing problems.
    Otherwise, it beats the hell out of me what is going on or why the ENTER fix works. In programmer speak we refer to a fix we can’t explain as FM (F*****G Magic.)

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