THE MATTER OF CHRIST’S MEMBER IN BARTOLOMÉ BERMEJO’S CHRIST

THE REDEEMER PANELS

IRINI PICOLOU, DURHAM UNIVERSITY

PHD CANDIDATE IN ART HISTORY AND HISPANIC STUDIES
 INTRODUCTION

• Bermejo is unique in his depiction of Christ’s body – the member was not explicitly depicted in medieval art to the

extent that it is portrayed in the Christ the Redeemer panels.

• The representation of the member during the triduum mortis also stands a peculiar iconographical trope, offering a

novel meaning to nudity in post-mortem, revival contexts

• The Valencian literary and visual contexts of the panels point to the salvific meanings of Christ’s body, mainly the

works of Francesc Eiximenis and Isabel de Villena which narrate the scenes depicted

• The panels potently stress the intrinsic interconnectedness between Christ’s humanity and divinity through the total

materiality of the body; it is within this context in which the significance of nudity should be analysed
THE STEINBERG-BYNUM DEBATE AND POST-DEBATE OBSERVATIONS

• Leo Steinberg published The Sexuality of Christ first in 1983, then a revised edition in 1996

• In both editions, he argues that the genitalia is a symbol of Christ’s sexuality and clarifies in his revised version

that ‘sexuality’ refers to the state of the body being sexed; a sexuality that exists without guilt

• Caroline Walker Bynum (1986: 399–439) counterargues that medieval people did not view Christ’s body as being

sexed and that one must be cautious of eroticizing Christ’s body from the perspectives of twentieth-century

discourses

• This purpose of study is not to critique perspectives put forward by Bynum and Steinberg, but rather to

demonstrate how the exposure of genitalia in Bermejo’s panels show that Christ’s body was imbued with

historical, scientific and cultural as well as salvific meanings

Fig. 1: Hypothetical placement of the panels in the banco of the

retablo mayor depicting the life of Saint Dominic of Silos (Blog,

Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya).

Fig. 2: Bartolomé Bermejo, Descent of Christ into Limbo,

1470–80, oil and gilding on wood. 89.5 x 69.5 x 2.5 cm.

Barcelona, Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya [0158–000].

Fig. 3: Detail of genitalia in reflectographic image of Fig. 4: Detail of genitalia in painting of Descent
Descent
Fig. 5: Bartolomé Bermejo, Christ with the Just in Paradise,

1470–80, oil and gilding on wood. 105.5 x 68 cm. Barcelona,

Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya [251907–000].

Fig. 6: Bartolomé Bermejo, Resurrection, 1470–80, oil and

gilding on wood. 90 x 96 x 7 cm. Barcelona, Museu Nacional

d’Art de Catalunya [015871–000].

Fig. 7: Bartolomé Bermejo, Ascension, 1470–80, oil and gilding

on wood. 104.5 x 69 cm. Barcelona, Museu Nacional d’Art de

Catalunya [251908–000].
 CONCLUSION: THE MATTER OF CHRIST’S MEMBER IN MEDIEVAL ART

• Jesus’s divine form was nonphysical, however his divine form needed to maintain continuity with his human form and

the genitalia was a pertinent symbol in affirming the totality of the body

• Ostentatio vulnerum went hand-in-hand with ostentation genitalium – the circumcised penis was the first signifier of

the sacrifice that Christ was to make for humankind

• Christ’s post-revival nudity represented a sexuality that existed without guilt and without shame – he left behind

nothing but his foreskin as a physical marker of his sacrifice

• Christ’s genitalia did not merely function as an indicator of sexuality or sexual difference – it needed to be understood

as a historical and scientific verifier of his presence on Earth to devotees

• In the words of Bynum ‘Christ’s bodily matter lives at the moment he expires — and forever’ (2011: 258).
• Berg-Sobré, Judith, 1979. ‘Eiximenis, Isabel de Villena and Some Fifteenth-Century Illustrations of their Works’, in Estudis de llengua, literatura i cultura catalanes: actes del

primer col⋅loqui d’estudis catalans a Nord-Amèrica, Urbana, ed. Alberto Porqueras Mayo, Spurgeon Baldwin, & Jaume Martí-Olivella (Montserrat: Publicacions de l’Abadia de

Montserrat), pp. 303–13.

• Bynum, Caroline Walker, 1986. ‘The Body of Christ in the Later Middle Ages: A Reply to Leo Steinberg’, Renaissance Quarterly, 39.3: 399–439.

• ———, 2011. Christian Materiality: An Essay on Religion in Late Medieval Europe (Princeton NJ: University Press).

• Campuzano, Mirea & Carme Ramells Cabrelles, 2021. ‘Una mirada bajo el color: La reflectografía infrarroja en las tablas del Cristo Redentor y la Piedad Desplà’ , in ed. Joan

Molina Figueras, El universo pictórico de Bartolomé Bermejo: actas del Congreso Internacional noviembre 2018 (Madrid: Museo del Prado), pp. 96–105.

• Favà Monllau, Cèsar, 2018. ‘Bartolomé Bermejo: Scenes from Christ the Redeemer’, in Bartolomé Bermejo, ed. Joan Molina Figueras (Madrid: Museo Nacional del Prado), pp.

144–52.

• ———, & Mirea Mestre, 2021. ‘Cuatro tablas en busca del retablo: el ciclo de Cristo Redentor de Bartolomé Bermejo, una predela para el retablo de Santo Domingo de Silos’, in

ed. Joan Molina Figueras, El universo pictórico de Bartolomé Bermejo: actas del Congreso Internacional noviembre 2018 (Madrid: Museo del Prado), pp. 80–95.

• Loughlin, Gerard, 2007. Queer Theology: Rethinking the Western Body (Oxford: Blackwell).

• Ragusa, Isa & Rosalie B. Green, 1961. Meditations on the Life of Christ: An Illustrated Manuscript of the Fourteenth Century, Paris, Biblioth èque Nationale, MS. Ital. 115.

(Princeton NJ: University Press).