
The viewpoint shown in Nancy Yakimoski’s “On the Virgin’s Peculiar Breasts” shows the reader the progression of the catholic church and how they slowly allowed their artists to paint with more freedom. The first time period to look at is the Gothic art which shows paintings that are extremely restricted in showing average human bodies. These restrictions had 2 serious reasons for doing so in favor of the church. It would show the followers of Catholicism that biblical figures such as Mary, Jesus, and God in bodies not like that as an average person so as to set them apart and put them on a pedestal above others to show just how better they are. Also, the paintings would include beyond possible human facial gestures so that the followers of the church would see how kind, pained, etc. With these overexaggerated emotions shown by major catholic figures were to encourage more power to the church through gaining more devoted followers. The next thing is look to look towards the renaissance time period and how the artists were allowed to have their religious murals include people of great biblical importance looking similar to that of an average person. With the ability of artists to make paintings with more freedom, they were able to create pieces of art that were magnificent and still well-known and celebrated to this day much more so than the paintings to come out of the gothic era. After showing both time periods we will pit them against each other to show how far the catholic church has come in allowing their artists the more freedom in the devotional paintings ordered by the church. Now, to look at those who had little control over what they were allowed to paint.

The primary painting chosen from the gothic era of the catholic church is Man of Sorrows by Meister Francke in 1435. The reason to choose this piece as the primary example is due to how warped the body of Jesus is in order to distance himself from being seen as another normal person. Another point is a way to enforce the faith of those who look at it by seeing the disproportionate amount of pain and anguish seen than is truly possible. First, if one were to compare his nipples to that of any other man, it would be obvious how unbelievably high up they are on his body. This is significant due to the fact the church is trying to set these biblical figures apart from average people by any means necessary which includes altering the nipple to areas which are simply impossible on a normal human body. Normally this alone wouldn’t be enough evidence however it does draw a connection with Nancy Yakimoski’s piece by focusing how the breasts/ nipples are basically on the collarbones of people painted in these devotional paintings during the gothic era. 

Second, Jesus’ face in the painting shows that of struggle, anguish, and pain on an unspeakable level. No matter what a human being could possibly go through, their pained faces could never compare to that which is seen in this example. The catholic church undoubtedly did this on purpose to inspire faith in those who see it. Just imagine being a young child growing up in a catholic household always being told of what Jesus had to suffer and then to one day see a painting as haunting as this. You would be hard-pressed not to feel guilty and have a need to go to your church as frequently as possible to try and feel as if his sacrifice were not in vain, talk about a powerful devotional painting. While we may not be debating the church’s choice to guilt trip people, we are talking about their control over these painting which have the intention to make people feel guilty by looking at unrealistic human bodies. Luckily, this doesn’t stay the same forever as the catholic church slowly but surely lets their artists have more and more control over what they paint.

After centuries of little to no freedom for artists of the catholic church with devotional artwork, we finally arrive at the renaissance era and the time in which artists are finally given more freedom over their own pieces which in turn created some of the most amazing artwork the world has ever seen. The primary examples for this time is the Sistine Chapel and The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci due to the realistic depictions of primary catholic figures such as Adam, Jesus, and God. With the Last Supper, one can see major biblical figures with that of normal human bodies. Even Jesus Christ and Mary Magdalene have average looking bodies which is a considerable step above what the gothic era brought, especially for major female figures because of how high up and distorted their breasts used to look like. Then, looking at the Sistine Chapel it becomes very easy to see a pattern of the drastic change of these devotional paintings over the years. Every single person, animal, or thing in these frescoes are created to look as realistic and lifelike as possible. Even the major biblical characters including God himself are painted to look how the human body naturally looks. Of course, they are physically in shape and showing various emotions but all of this is in a realm of realistic possibilities which plays in favor to the catholic church that way it feels more realistic to the masses by showing these incredible figures in some more realistic bodies than have been seen before this during the gothic era. Because of such an astounding level of beauty and perfection, these devotional paintings have and always will be remembered to a significantly higher level than that of what was previously seen in the catholic church making the argument of having the same figures but with distorted bodies thrown out the window due to its own argument of inspiring the masses against itself. Now to put these two eras of Catholicism’s devotional paintings against one another.

At any specific point in time, the catholic church is trying to create these paintings to inspire faith in their masses but now we can see which way was more effective, by making these major figures have distorted and overexaggerated bodies or by going for the option of making these figures look to be within the realm of realism. First, during both times much of Europe was under the control of Catholicism therefor making it impossible to argue whether either type converted entire countries. Therefor we must look at the effect they’ve had over the years and which side is more easily remembered and recognized. The gothic era did not see a long-term success rate as the vast majority of people don’t focus on this era for inspiration catholic devotional paintings. The renaissance easily wins due to it still being well known even to this day and is even well known beyond that of those who follow the catholic church which is due to the catholic church allowing its painters to have more freedom in what they paint for the church. This conclusion is also reached in Nancy Yakimoski’s piece due entirely to the fact of how the church has become more open over the years which in turn allowed their artists to make the best possible paintings they can.

In the end, everyone can agree the paintings that the church had less restrictions on allowed the artists to make more impactful and memorable paintings. Thanks to these additional sources, we are able to solidify the points made by Nancy Yakimoski in which she showed the importance of allowing artists to have more freedom over their creations. Because of all of this, one has to wonder what would’ve happened if the church had always been more open to letting their artists have more control. But in the end, all that matters is seeing how far the catholic church has come and how much more beneficial it was for everyone once they started allowing their artists to have more artistic freedom.
