Offensive Art

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While they express the natural motherhood of Our Lady, personally I think they are unneccessary.

Why do you ask?

MrS
 
Offensive? No. But I don’t care for the first one… it looks like baby Jesus is having a very bad hair day. Second one is nice. Third one looks like Mary in a Prom dress. Fourth one is the worst. Baby Jesus looks way too skinny and what’s with Mary’s long bony fingers? But offensive because of the breastfeeding? No way.
 
Negative.

While I do not like to see breast feeding in public, that is my problem and strictly cultural. I would never be offended by another culture, or those in the past expressing beauty though art.
 
no, its not offensive. not in the slightest. no way, never.

it is tastefully done, skillfully done, and carries a nice message.
i have not problem with nudity, breatfeeding, and other such thing so long as the intention is good and the art is tasteful for the culture it was made in.
 
The second one seems to be the most tasteful…but I just dont care to see Mary breastfeeding…yeah…she breastfed…but its a private matter…I wouldnt even have had the thought enter my mind to even paint the image to begin with. Out of all Marian paintings…BF would never be part of my collection.
 
The federally owned building where I worked for a number of years had an “art” exhibit in its concourse. It was pretty weird – some mounted garbage and scrap, etc. etc.

But I saw one young lady who put it all in perspective. She was wearing a big button that read, “Art is whatever you can get away with.”

Wasn’t always thus, but these days … :whistle:

Blessings,

Gerry
 
The art isn’t offensive, especially in comparison to the Madonna created from elephant dung a few years ago. But then, if this is in relation to the discussion of breastfeeding during mass, then that should be your question. If someone were baring her breast like any of these during mass, then it is indeed offensive and inappropriate…whether the BVM breastfed or not is irrelevent. She didn’t do it in a room full of men. People actually understood modesty and propriety back then.
 
Offensive? Absolutely not! I thought they were truly beautiful. They showed the intimacy, tenderness and beauty between a mother and child.

Thanks for posting them!

~J
 
Faithful 2 Rome:
but I just dont care to see Mary breastfeeding…yeah…she breastfed…but its a private matter…
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If breastfeeding is a “private matter”, why was it portrayed so publicly in art? Don’t you think if breastfeeding offended people’s sensibilities that it wouldn’t be portrayed in art? Early Marian paintings commonly depict her breastfeeding Jesus… in fact, one of the earliest known paintings of Mary depicts bf.
 
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daniellet:
If breastfeeding is a “private matter”, why was it portrayed so publicly in art? Don’t you think if breastfeeding offended people’s sensibilities that it wouldn’t be portrayed in art? Early Marian paintings commonly depict her breastfeeding Jesus… in fact, one of the earliest known paintings of Mary depicts bf.
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Our culture now says its a private matter. The culture back then, and many other cultures now, accept BF as a matter of course. Now we’re getting into puritanical views that have been dominant in our country.

BTW I thought all the pictures were beautiful. Its not the nudity thats the issue, its the intention of the artist (what is he/she saying?) and the intended effect on the viewer (what is the artist trying to make me feel etc.)
 
A friend of mine told me of some paintings (I believe) in the Vatican where each virtue was symbolized with a woman doing something. For example, Humility was a woman viewing herself (truthfully) in a mirror. Charity, was a woman breastfeeding. Perhaps this symbolism is used here as well.

There is a painting in I saw either in the Louvre or Boston MFA (heavens what a (lack of) memory I have for specifics!), where one woman was tweaking the bare nipple of another and it symbolized the pregnancy of the one being tweaked.

Also, in the day that these paintings were painted, how discreet were women with breastfeeding? I don’t know.

Metaphors in writing, symbolism in art–I’m pretty much an uneducated dolt, but I find it fascinating when I learn the stuff!

Just some thoughts.

Debbie
 
Its a private matter…period.

Just cause artists painted the image doesnt MAKE the image appropriate in its THEMES

I’d be willing to bet that when Mary was BF, ST Joseph didnt even see her doing so to where she was exposed to him.

Yes…BF is a NATURAL thing… so is going to the bathroom…and having sexual relations…and I have no interest in seeing that either…they are PRIVATE MATTERS.

…and NO…I dont have any problem with a woman BF in public…as long as she is discreet, I could care less…I also dont consider Mary BF in Art as being “offensive”…I just think its a private matter and feel the Lord would rather have me viewing something other than him suckeling from his mothers exposed breast.
 
Breast feeding has been around a lot longer then Gerber.

I wonder how some people thought our Holy Mother fed our Lord before He got teeth?

Although, I do not care for the artistic QUALITY of the paintings, I think the message is beautiful and loving.
 
Faithful 2 Rome:
I’d be willing to bet that when Mary was BF, ST Joseph didnt even see her doing so to where she was exposed to him.

Yes…BF is a NATURAL thing… so is going to the bathroom…and having sexual relations…and I have no interest in seeing that either…they are PRIVATE MATTERS.

…and NO…I dont have any problem with a woman BF in public…as long as she is discreet, I could care less…I also dont consider Mary BF in Art as being “offensive”…I just think its a private matter and feel the Lord would rather have me viewing something other than him suckeling from his mothers exposed breast.
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I think you would lose that bet. It was the Puritans of later centuries who made that sort of thing a private matter. Whether your actions incite lust is the litmus test of immodesty. Do you seriously get turned on seeing a woman breastfeed? If not, then you just need to grow a thicker skin, my friend.
 
No I dont get turned on… and I dont appreciate people who make that assumption just cause someone doesnt have an appreciation for breastfeeding as art…I resent your implication.

In our WESTERN culture…its about MODESTY…the same argument for breastfeeding OPENLY can used for the Churches reason that liturgical dance isnt appropiate here…too great a risk for lewdeness too develop…

and please…dont give me the “puritans” bunk…

We’re talking about a time when a husband was commanded to stone his wife to death if it was thought she was unfaithful… hence Josephs dilemma and dream which reassured him about Mary… those times were ALMOST as stringent as Islam is today toward women even showing their FACES or ANKELS…so do yourself a favor and keep your money in the bank and dont take that sucker bet…“my friend” :rolleyes:
 
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