Bawdy Phallic Plate Heads for Oxford
Thu Sep 18, 8:55 AM ET
LONDON (Reuters) - A leading British museum has paid $387,000 for a
Renaissance plate which shows a male head made up entirely of phalluses.
see it here:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=573&ncid=757&e=3&u=/nm/20030918/od_nm/plate_dc
The Italian plate is thought to have been made by
ceramicist Francesco Urbini in the 16th century.
It shows a head made up of around 50 fleshy penises,
wrapped round each other to form a dense, knotted
whole.
The head is framed by a garland carrying the
inscription: "Ogni homo me guarda come fosse una
testa de cazi" (Every man looks at me as if I were a
dickhead).
The phrase is still a common term of abuse in Italy and
elsewhere.
Oxford's Ashmolean Museum, which has bought the plate, describes it as
"one of the
most extraordinary and fascinating pieces of Italian maiolica (a style
of ceramic painting)
in existence."
It is a rare example of bawdy Renaissance art which survived the
suppression of later,
more prudish, generations, it said.
The Ashmolean said the inspiration for the plate remains obscure but it
was painted
"presumably with an individual in mind."
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