""Medieval viewers understood Christ's body as both male and female," said Melanie Holcomb and Nancy Thebaut, the curators behind " Spectrum of Desire: Love, Sex, and Gender in the Middle Ages," a delightfully corporeal medieval art exhibition now on view at the Met Cloisters in New York. "In addition to being the son of God, he was also frequently described as a mother, and his wound was often likened to a lactating breast that could be a source of spiritual nourishment for others.""
"The mandorla (the almond-shaped halo or aureole that surrounds the body of a sacred figure) shape of Christ's side wound can also be found in a more abstracted form surrounding Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary in much of medieval iconography. The shape evokes the overlapping realms of the heaven and earth. These forms highlighted medieval understandings of Christ's encompassing, divine nature as both god and man, male and female, existing outside gender binaries."
Medieval artists frequently depicted Christ's side wound with a mandorla shape resembling female genitalia. Such depictions were intentional and aligned with medieval beliefs that Christ's body embodied both male and female qualities. The wound was likened to a lactating breast and a source of spiritual nourishment. The mandorla shape also symbolized the overlap of heaven and earth and appeared around sacred figures like Christ and the Virgin Mary. A notable example appears in the Prayer Book of Bonne of Luxembourg, where a disembodied bright wound sits on a blue background with golden vines.
Read at Artnet News
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