Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 11220
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Lewis , Flora.
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: The Wound in Christ's Side and the Instruments of the Passion: Gendered Experience and Response [images of sexual union and childbirth as well as knightly combat were used by both women and men to contemplate the Passion].
  • Source: Women and the Book: Assessing the Visual Evidence.  Edited by Lesley Smith and Jane H.M. Taylor.  British Library and University of Toronto Press, 1997.  Pages 204 - 229.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Essay
  • Subject (See Also): Arma Christi (Latin: Instruments of the Passion and Weapons against the Devil) Body Bride of Christ, Image of Devotional Literature Gender Iconography Illumination of Manuscripts Imagery Jesus Christ- Passion Jesus Christ- Wounds Knight, Image of Manuscri
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: General
  • Century: 13- 14
  • Primary Evidence:
  • Illustrations: Eight Figures including Plate Eight in color. Manuscript illustrations of the life-size wound by itself, the "arma christi," and Christ displaying his wounded side. Figure Ninety-Two is from the Passional of Abbess Kunigunde dated to the early fourteenth century. Figure Eighty-Nine, dated to 1320, is from a Brabant monk's compilation. Also dating from around 1320 is the miniature from the "Image du Monde" made for Guillaume Flotte, a councillor of Philippe le Bel. Two illustrations come from the Psalter of Bonne of Luxembourg from the midfourteenth century. In the illustrations the wound is almond-shaped, on a vertical axis, and painted blood red in its center section. It bears a striking ressemblance to the female genitals.
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  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 1997.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 0802042163