Blackwell Reference Online

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A civic fountain was a major landmark in a thirteenth‐century Italian commune: an essential source of water, an expression of civic identity, and a semi‐formal meeting place. In 1265 the Tuscan town of Massa Marittima completed its fountain, situated just off the main piazza, comprising a loggia framed by three tall arches. At some point thereafter — perhaps a decade later — the wall behind the water troughs was decorated with murals. Those for the right and centre arches are now lost, though the latter might have incorporated a depiction of the Virgin Mary. But in the left arch one mural still survives, some 6×5 meters in size. The image the medieval commune chose to place there is of a penis tree.Penis trees are rare, though not unknown, in medieval art. The one at Massa Marittima is probably the earliest depiction, and is certainly the largest and most public. In the bottom right, a group of four women stand sedately, talking with each other, whilst a black bird flies in from the right of the frame. Bottom left, four women (maybe the same four women) fight and squabble: two tussle over a sack whilst pulling each others’ hair, as black birds fly overhead, and another is being poked from behind — perhaps sodomized — by a disembodied phallus. The fourth woman reaches up to the verdant tree that dominates the frame. In its branches are the penises: twenty‐five or more, erect and ... log in or subscribe to read full text