5 - Gender-Querying Christ’s Wounds: A Non-Binary Interpretation of Christ’s Body in Late Medieval Imagery

Summary

Abstract

This chapter argues that Christ's body can be read as a non-binary body in Late Medieval imagery through analysis of images of Christ's wounds that appear in Books of Hours and prayer rolls. Wounds opened up the gendered representation of the holy body to incorporate aspects of femininity, masculinity and aspects that signify as neither. Through a reading of Christ's wounds as potential markers of the genderqueer, I argue that an individual's identification with the non-binary body of Christ could result in identification as a non-binary body for the viewing patron. Genderqueer interpretation of Christ's body shows how non-binary visual interpretation more broadly is useful for understanding the complexity of medieval bodies and gender.

Keywords: non-binary, wounds, Christ, late medieval, Book of Hours, religion and gender

The Late Middle Ages in Europe saw a distinct shift in devotional practice from a collective to a more individual model of worship, encouraging more intimate relationships with the divine through meditative practices and the use of literary and artistic devotional aids. This period, understood as roughly 1320-1500 for the purposes of this chapter, manifested a change in Christ's representation from a purely divine body to a body that simultaneously represented humanity and divinity. Empathy with the suffering of both the Virgin Mary and Christ was increasingly emphasized in worship and encouraged among worshippers. From the middle of the eleventh century onwards a new kind of affective piety encouraged devotees to contemplate Christ's humanity and suffering as if it were their own. Affective piety encouraged intense reflection on Christ's sufferings in the crucifixion and drew focus to Christ's humanity and vulnerability. Thomas Bestul characterizes affective piety ‘by an ardent love for Christ in his human form, compassion for the sufferings of Christ, and intense longing for union with God’. Affective piety inspired devotion that entailed use of all of the senses, in order both to imagine oneself witnessing the Passion, and to viscerally feel and identify with Christ's suffering. In particular, the image of Christ's wounds opened up the gendered representation of the holy body to incorporate aspects of femininity, masculinity and aspects that signify as neither. This diversely gendered body could have personal resonances for every viewer by displaying bodily morphology recognizable to all, irrespective of their gender.