Friday, August 5, 2011

In a number of depictions the indicating hand is located directly over the Saint's groin, bringing additional attention to that area--i.e., the "well turned," bare thigh. Indeed, in some representations of, or including St. Roch, one initially has the impression that the saint is about to expose himself, pulling up his overgarment. In Bernardino Luini's The Madonna of the Dragonfly: Madonna and Child with Sts Sebastian and Roche (c. 1520) (See: Figure 210) St. Roch coyly bares his left thigh, however, Antonio Allegri's (called Correggio) painting of the Madonna of St. Sebastian (1523) (See: Figure 211), the fold of the covering cloth between his spread thighs protrudes between St. Roch's index and middle finger like a penis. In Nicolo Pisano’s “St. Sebastian and other Saints” (1508) (See: Figure 243), St. Roch appears at the lower right of the composition and directly in front of two kneeling women donors. As he observes the female donors, he lifts his tunic, exposing his lesion. In any other circumstance, the pulling up of one's outer garment, the covering garment, revealing one's bare thighs would be seen as tantamount to a preparatory act of exposing oneself, an act of exhibitionism.


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