Artist
- Sweet "Baby" Jesus
Medium - Iron Fist on Spineless Cowards
The piece we present you with today is another bit of church propaganda
gone wrong, but this time, we have one from the Protestant side of things.
Early on, soon after Martin Luther's famous posting on what passed at
the time for the message board of Vurms, most of Medieval Europe was caught
up in an increasingly sordid condemnation of the Roman Catholic Church,
and it's head, the Pope (Julius II, O.F.M., at the time, who was one of
the gayer
popes). Here we see something that, now-a-days, would be not even
be allowed as an editorial cartoon in the weekly missal of the Protestant
Church of your choice.
At the time, however, this was considered an example of high art, albeit
rather overzealous in it's condemnation. Presented here is the last work
of Martin
Luther's own father, a famous wrestler
of the time, and an artist in his own right. However, he seems to have
gotten a bit carried away in his criticism of Rome and it's Pontiff, which,
in the end, led to his death.
Here we see the child Jesus, who is clearly meant to be some sort of zombie
as shown by his empty staring eyes, and the woman's unwillingness to hold
the child properly in her lap (the smell must have been horrific). The
woman, obviously a concubine of some sort, judging from her age, beauty,
and lowered gaze before her zombie master, is shown wearing a crown, an
artistic symbolism meant to signify that she was a carrier of a venereal
disease (meaning that a "crown" should go on the "head of the king" before
he enters the woman's "public square"...)
Seated opposite the great undead lord is his puppet, Pope Julius, whom
the zombie king toying with before instructing him on his duties for the
day. Still evident on this Pope-et are the marks of his lobotomization
(as seen by the lack of hair on the central part of his head, directly
over the part of the brain the governs free will). This left him rather
easily controlled, especially for someone with the powers of the long
dead, ageless child...
Although it was meant to point out the corruption and evil present in
the higher ranks of the Catholic Church, even Martin Luther was bothered
by the depths to which his father sunk with this work. Fearing that his
father was suffering some sort of brain hemorrhage brought on by his years
in the ring, Martin Luther brought him to see a local
young doctor. Unfortunately, the young doctor mistakenly performed
his "Bloodied Stun Palm of Doom" on the elderly Luther, rupturing his
intestinal cavities. Martin Luther brought his ailing father home and
put him to bed, where he soon died of dysentery...
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