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The recent death of the Art historian Leo Steinberg has revived interest in his controversial book “The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion.” The book grew out of a question that had apparently occurred to no other modern scholar: Why is it that in so many Renaissance paintings of the Madonna and Child, the infant Jesus’ genitals are actively displayed to viewers both within and without the picture?
The explanation, Mr. Steinberg argued, was to be found in Renaissance theology, wherein a major question concerned the humanity of the son of God. Here the possession of reproductive organs proved that Jesus, whatever his metaphysical status, was indeed fully human and subject to human suffering.
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