Testiculos qui non habet, Papa Esse non Posset
.."Artwork exhibited at the Museum “il Cassero for the Italian's Sculpture 19th and 20th Centuries“ of Montevarchi, Tuscany, is a female figure dressed in papal attire.
The title «Testiculos qui non habet Papa esse non posset», inspired from the “Virility test” by Francesco Sorrentino, regarding the episode linked to the legend of the female Pope Joan who, in the mid IX Century, faked her way to becoming Pope under the name of John VIII. However, when she became pregnant, she was unmasked and stoned to death.
An essential part of the legend is a rite invented by the people and taken up by Sixteenth Century protestant writers with glee. It was imagined that new Pope underwent an accurate intimate exam to make sure he was not a woman dressed up as a man. The exam took place with the new Pope sitting a stride a crimson chair which had a hole in it. The youngest deacons present had to feel under the chair in order to make sure that the Pope possessed the necessary manly attributes.
Since the XIX Century this event has interested writers and artists. In recent years two directors have brought the episode to the big screen.
Even this work portraying the woman at the head of the Church as a static and austere form – faceless and without identity – is to be interpreted as a further criticism of the artist of the existing exclusion of women from positions of power, which have been traditionally seen as the domain of men for centuries. The figure blesses the population with one hand and wears the papal ring: with the other hand the figure holds the globe. The symbols are traditional except for the cross hanging around the figure’s neck – it does not have the crucified Christ, but shows a female figure.
Critical text by Federica Marrubini
The title «Testiculos qui non habet Papa esse non posset», inspired from the “Virility test” by Francesco Sorrentino, regarding the episode linked to the legend of the female Pope Joan who, in the mid IX Century, faked her way to becoming Pope under the name of John VIII. However, when she became pregnant, she was unmasked and stoned to death.
An essential part of the legend is a rite invented by the people and taken up by Sixteenth Century protestant writers with glee. It was imagined that new Pope underwent an accurate intimate exam to make sure he was not a woman dressed up as a man. The exam took place with the new Pope sitting a stride a crimson chair which had a hole in it. The youngest deacons present had to feel under the chair in order to make sure that the Pope possessed the necessary manly attributes.
Since the XIX Century this event has interested writers and artists. In recent years two directors have brought the episode to the big screen.
Even this work portraying the woman at the head of the Church as a static and austere form – faceless and without identity – is to be interpreted as a further criticism of the artist of the existing exclusion of women from positions of power, which have been traditionally seen as the domain of men for centuries. The figure blesses the population with one hand and wears the papal ring: with the other hand the figure holds the globe. The symbols are traditional except for the cross hanging around the figure’s neck – it does not have the crucified Christ, but shows a female figure.
Critical text by Federica Marrubini
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