Previous (Pompeii)

3. The Renaissance.

Thousands of statues and paintings featuring nude male figures - virtually all intact - were created during the Renaissance, when Christian diffidence gave way before ideals of classical beauty. This is only a small selection.

Tommaso Masaccio (Active ~1401 -1428) shows Adam's foreskin as short or partly retracted.

Capella Brancacci, Chiesa del Carmine, Florence

	Leonardo da Vinci's "Vitruvian man" is much copied - though his intact penis is seldom shown clearly.

	Again, in a few simple strokes, Leonardo indicates the corona, the acroposthion - and the assymetrical testicles.

Leonardo da Vinci
A nude man standing facing the spectator
property of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
(Royal Library at Windsor)

	One of the best known nude male images in the world. Michaelangelo's Adam is portrayed with a baby's penis - presumably to indicate his innocence.
As such, this is quite accurate - a baby's foreskin may extend far beyond the end of his glans. (The closeup was taken after the recent restoration.)

One of the enigmatic male nudes (ignudi) on the Sistine Chapel ceiling. He is portrayed with a small adult penis.

David's penis is relatively small, probably to avoid attracting attention, and following classical ideals. He is intact because: Michaelangelo preferred it his model was (of course) intact Michaelangelo had regard to the midrash (Men 43 6) that David "looked on himself in the bath and was distressed he had no evidence of a covenant fulfilled" and had himself (re-)circumcised (Encyclopedia Judaica) the ancient Israelite circumcision was minimal, and/or it isn't of the Biblical David at all. Some art historians believe that David was actually the name of the model who posed for the statue, and that Michelangelo claimed the Biblical reference to make it acceptable to the Christian world.

Hercules by Vincenzo de' Rossi (1525-1587)

Palazzo Vecchio, Florence

	Jacopo Pontormo, Vertumnus and Pomona, fresco in the Villa Medici, Poggio a Caiano (Florence), 1519 - 21

Allegory of the Victory of Honesty over Deceit by Vincenzo Danti (1530-76)

Boboli Gardens, Florence

	The cyclops' penis is boyish after the classical manner, with a long foreskin...	...and a detailed acroposthion. (c.1597)
Polyphemus and Acis		Polyphemus and Galatea
after Annibale Carracci (1560-1609)

Biblioteca Ambrosiana
Milan

Next (post-Renaissance)

Back to the Intactivism index page.

If any pictures are on this non-profit, educational site in breach of your copyright, please notify me and they will be removed.