A Figurine from Stare Bielsko - Sexuality in Middle Ages

Abstract

Medieval authorities of the Church unequivocaly condemned sex in its all manifestations. At least, that was their formal stand in this case. Though, relics of the literature, art and archaeology undermine this „prudish” point of view. A ceramic figurine from late Middle Ages, found in Stare Bielsko, shows a couple that is having sex and can be a good example of not such sanctimonious way of thinking. Originally, the figurine could be a handle of a lid which was glazed green. It seems that figurine's ideological essence is not so far from social standards of decadent Gothic.