Michelangelo’s David (1501-04), a Renaissance sculpture from Florence, Italy.
The
ancient Romans might have been more positive towards large penises, but their
sculptures continue the trend of small penises. Later, in Renaissance art,
sculptors were likewise specifically influenced by ancient Greek art and
their small penis size.
There are two main reasons why ancient Greek statues have
small penises. Firstly, they’re flaccid. If
you compare their size to most flaccid male penises, they are actually not
significantly smaller than real-life penises tend to be. Secondly, cultural values
about male beauty were completely different back then.
Today,
big penises are seen as valuable and manly, but back then, most evidence points
to the fact that small penises were considered better
than big ones. Small penises were more culturally valued, large penises were associated
with foolishness, lust and ugliness. All representations of large
penises in ancient Greek art and literature are associated with foolish,
lustful men, or the animal-like satyrs.
Meanwhile,
the ideal Greek man was rational, intellectual and authoritative. He may still
have had a lot of sex, but this was unrelated to his penis size, and his small
penis allowed him to remain coolly logical. Ancient Greek sculptures are all about balance and idealism. Therefore, it
makes sense that they wouldn’t have large penises, as this would be considered
humorous or grotesque.
There’s an interesting theory for why David’s penis is so small, apart from the Greek influence. In 2005, two Florentine doctors published a paper arguing that David’s penis was shriveled by fear.
When viewed from the front, David’s face actually looks frightened and concerned, because of his impending fight with the giant Goliath.
The doctors argue that Michelangelo sculpted every detail in David’s body to be consistent with symptoms of fear and tension - including his genitals.
“If you do these things I tell you, and bend your efforts
to them, you will always have a shining breast, a bright skin, big shoulders, a
minute tongue, a big rump and a small prick. But if you follow the practices of today, for a start you’ll have a pale
skin, small shoulders, a skinny chest, a big tongue, a small rump, a big prick and a long-winded
decree.”
(Lines 1010 – 1019)
