Visual Art as Social Data: The Renaissance Codpiece

Abstract

The Renaissance codpiece, a visible penis sheath worn in the 16th century, has long been an enigma to social historians, ethnologists, and social psychologists. Clothing historians refer to the padded, protruding codpiece as the embodiment of aggressive virility display in Western dress (Batterberry and Batterberry 1977; Binder 1954; Boehn 1932; Cunnington and Cunnington 1954; Laver 1969; Ribeiro 1986; Squires 1974; Strage 1980). However, there is an unexplored functional link between the codpiece and a sexually transmitted epidemic of that time which can provide a new explanation about the development of this unique European clothing artefact. Peter Ucko in his definitive cross-cultural analysis of penis sheathing described the world distribution of various penis confinement practices and the materials and shapes used in making sheaths, and then discussed the functions and meanings ascribed to such artefacts by both the wearers and Western ethnologists reporting on material culture. The possible functions were: (1) contraception or sexual continence; (2) orifice blocking; (3) protection from environment and/or diseases; (4) decorum: with contradictions between shame or display relative to form; (5) storage receptacle; (6) communication of social and sexual status: group membership, hierarchical rank, age, gender, sexual availability; (7) artistic expression; and (8) symbols of attitudes, emotions or psychological needs. Ucko also suggested that any useful study of material culture must be wide and multifaceted with studies which start from observable reality and which demand that each switch to theoretical abstraction be visibly related to the observable (Ucko 1969:58). For a reexamination of the functions of the Renaissance codpiece it is important to ask wide-ranging questions about its visibly observable reality.' Because of their perishable nature, garments from this period are almost nonexistent and therefore cannot be examined systematically. However, around the year 1500, artists with great drafting ability began to produce drawings and portraits of men in contemporary clothing. Thus, photographs of Renaissance full-frontal portraits offer an archive of visual data that will permit objectively informed answers to such questions as: