700
submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] [email protected] 25 points 3 days ago

What the hell was the original context for this painting? 😆

[-] [email protected] 20 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

It's an illuminated manuscript depicting Saint Denis and Saint Piatus, said to have been decapitated for their beliefs.

Statue of St Denis

Edit: comes from this book: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Livre_d%27images_de_madame_Marie

[-] [email protected] 2 points 2 days ago

No evil like christian holyness or something.

[-] [email protected] 13 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)
[-] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

They are actually comparing their new hairdo.

[-] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago

that's Byzantine artwork for ya! here's a post from an art history community that discusses the painting. quite interesting! https://www.reddit.com/r/ArtHistory/comments/e1h0sy/jesus_and_felix_regula_exuperantius_1506/

[-] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Wow what a way to depict them! Also, "cephalophoric" sounds like the saints are part octopus 😅

The cephalophoric saints Felix, Regula and Exuperantius (patron saints of Zurich), holding their attributes, their severed heads, before Christ, 1506, Zürcher Veilchenmeister. (Schweizerisches Nationalmuseum, Zürich)

The idea behind such a depiction is that those saints were killed when their heads were cut off. So it was decided that they would be honoured to be traditionally presented like that in painting. There are no less than 134 such saints.

[-] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago

My thoughts exactly. All I can think of is that religious devotion requires giving away your brain??? It really is a bizarre illustration

[-] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago

I have a theory that initially a lot of these works were made for a laugh, like an old timey joke picture, and over time people kept adding meaning to them.
Like someone makes a rude and crude painting of a giant cock with eyes, makes people laugh, and a few thousand years later some bloke in a trilby goes "hmm, yes, it seems these people worshipped a penis god at this point in time. Also it clearly reads a prophecy, 'deez nuts'. Fascinating."

[-] [email protected] 7 points 3 days ago

"Deez", likely a derivative of Latin "Deus". They were clearly a god fearing people!

this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2025
700 points (98.9% liked)

memes

16202 readers
2858 users here now

Community rules

1. Be civilNo trolling, bigotry or other insulting / annoying behaviour

2. No politicsThis is non-politics community. For political memes please go to [email protected]

3. No recent repostsCheck for reposts when posting a meme, you can only repost after 1 month

4. No botsNo bots without the express approval of the mods or the admins

5. No Spam/AdsNo advertisements or spam. This is an instance rule and the only way to live.

A collection of some classic Lemmy memes for your enjoyment

Sister communities

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS