| The purpose of this research was to understand the various interpretations of certain images of Christ from the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Images of Christ with a swollen belly, breasts and/or other feminized, and sexualized, qualities were historically interpreted as a way of showing his motherly, nurturing side.;Recently, some art historians and historians have sought to reinterpret these images and provide additional explanations--specifically that there was an underlying attempt to show Christ as a representation of fertility.;By examining images of a feminized and sexualized Christ, and the various writings of the top scholars in this area, this thesis compares the many varying theories while providing my own interpretation that images of Christ were feminized and sexualized as a way of reintroducing the Goddess into Christianity. |
