"Gardeneress" medieval carnival badge 2 in stock

The badge is a parody of a common medieval plot about a mysterious hidden garden holding some kind of secret. The plot of the 'Secret Rose' is transformed into a motif of growing phalluses like outlandish root vegetables. A woman is depicted with a shovel, stroking the "root vegetable" lying on the ground with her hand to make it "ripe". Indecent badges may contradict stereotypes of medieval prudery and fears of 'bodily sinfulness'. Meanwhile, images with explicit sexual connotations are found even in churches. And badges with erotic and satirical images were very popular. One of the hypotheses regarding these motifs is as follows: depictions of phalluses and vulvas were required to protect buildings from evil spirits, evil eye and other dangers. They were not worshipped, but rather seen as amulets, symbols capable of bringing good fortune and prosperity. According to many testimonies, in the Middle Ages there was an ancient belief that the phallus warded off evil and attracted good luck (hence, for example, the showing of a fig or the middle finger as a guarding gesture in superstitions). In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the genitals were regularly depicted on small metal badges that archaeologists find in the Netherlands, Northern France and England by the hundreds. The Netherlands, 1350-1400, by Jos Kolderweij "Sieraad en devotie in middeleews vlaandreen". Brass. Size 40x40 mm.