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"Nudus nudum Christum sequi" (or"Nudus nudum Christum sequere") is an earlyFranciscan andancient Christianascetic motto translated fromLatin as "Naked followers of the naked Christ" which served as anadage to embrace the fragility of humanity[1] and express the mortality ofJesus of Nazareth through the drawing of Hispudenda ("which is to be ashamed of"; i.e. his genitalia).[2][3] The phrase originated fromSaint Jerome who wrote in four letters to embrace a life in the mold of Jesus of Nazareth—a life of poverty and humility—and to embrace a life like a man naked, following the "naked Christ" or the "naked cross".[2]
The phrase originated and was popularized by Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus—known best asSaint Jerome—who wrote in four of his letters to embrace poverty, humility, and a life divorced from worldly desires. To further illustrate this point, Jerome offers the image of a man stripping himself naked to follow the "naked Christ" or the "naked cross". The phrase draws onthe encounter Jesus of Nazareth had with the rich man in thesynoptic Gospels:[2]
The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet? Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me. (Gospel of Matthew 19.20–21,King James Version;cf. 16.24; seeMark 10.17–31,Luke 18.18–30)
The recommended following of "the naked crucified Christ" was integral to the larger and quintessential characteristics ofFranciscan spirituality: a heartfelt contemplation of the poor and of the suffering humanity of Jesus. The humanization of Jesus has endured in many forms of art, poetry, and traditions withinChristianity, such as thepresepio andStations of the Cross.[4]
In 1983,Leo Steinberg, a Russian-born American art critic, wroteThe Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion as a blunt overlook of how many depictions of Jesus and hisgenitalia are "indisputably a central thematic concern."[1][5] He first argues:
The first necessity is to admit a long-suppressed matter of fact: that Renaissance art, both north and south of the Alps, produced a large body of devotional images in which the genitalia of the Christ Child, or of the dead Christ, receive such demonstrative emphasis that one must recognize anostentatio genitalium comparable to the canonicostentatio vulnerum, the showing forth of the wounds.[6]
In the book, he additionally attempts to find "theological grounds" for this concern to depict the teacher naked, which he sees as the embodiment ofthe doctrine of the Incarnation, showing that Jesus was linked with the great chain of human procreation – even though divinely perfect.[7] This is in part due to the pattern of drawing the emphases ofnudity in paintings depicting Jesus in the beginning and end of his life—theWord of God made Flesh (seeGospel of John 1.1).
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