A puer mingēns (; plural puerī mingentēs ) is a figure in a work of art depicted as a prepubescent boy in the act of urinating, either actual or simulated. The puer mingens could represent anything from whimsy and boyish innocence to erotic symbols of virility and masculine bravado.
Etymology and word play
![1525 Lotto Venus und Amor anagoria](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/1525_Lotto_Venus_und_Amor_anagoria.JPG)
The term ''puer mingens'' come from the Latin ''puer'', meaning "boy", and from the Latin ''mingens'', the present participle of the verb ''mingere'' which means "to urinate".
In Latin, verbs for urinating like ''mingere'' were frequently employed in the sense of "to ejaculate".
[Adams, J. N. ''The Latin Sexual Vocabulary''. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982.] This connotation was preserved in various descendents of Latin, including Italian with such words as ''pisciare''.
On account of this, the urine emitted from the penis of the ''puer mingens'' can be interpreted symbolically as semen; and ''pueri mingentes'' are frequently found in works auguring fertility and fecundity.
Lorenzo Lotto
Lorenzo Lotto (c. 1480 – 1556/57) was an Italian Painting, painter, draughtsman, and illustrator, traditionally placed in the Venetian school (art), Venetian school, though much of his career was spent in other north Italian cities. He pain ...
's
''Venus and Cupid'' is an example.
In several languages, such as Italian, French, and English, "to make water" was a euphemism for urinating.
In allusion to this, one can find depictions of a ''puer mingens'' "making water" in works such as
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (; 6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564), known as Michelangelo (), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was insp ...
's ''Children's Bacchanal'', or in church
lavabo
A lavabo is a device used to provide water for the washing of hands. It consists normally of a ewer or container of some kind to pour water, and a bowl to catch the water as it falls off the hands. In ecclesiastical usage it refers to all of: the b ...
s whose waterspouts are positioned in front of naked boys' groins (thereby giving the illusion that their urine has been transformed into water). ''Pueri mingentes'' were frequently incorporated as fully functioning statues whose pipes shot forth streams of water out of the statues' penises.
[Coonin, A. Victor. ''The Spirit of Water: Reconsidering the Putto Mictans Sculpture in Renaissance Florence''. Italica Press, New York, 2013.] One of the most famous examples of this is the
Manneken Pis
''Manneken Pis'' (; ) is a landmark bronze fountain sculpture in central Brussels, Belgium, depicting a puer mingens; a naked little boy urinating into the fountain's basin. Though its existence is attested as early as the 15th century, it wa ...
in
Brussels
Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...
.
Renaissance revivals of puer mingens
![Apollonio di Giovanni](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/Apollonio_di_Giovanni._Naked_boys_with_poppy_pods_%28verso%29._1450-60%2C_North_Carolina_Museum_of_Art%2C_Raleigh..jpg)
Pueri mingentes are a classical motif occasionally found in antiquity.
Ancient Roman examples of pueri mingentes occurred mainly on children's
sarcophagi
A sarcophagus (plural sarcophagi or sarcophaguses) is a box-like funeral receptacle for a cadaver, corpse, most commonly carved in stone, and usually displayed above ground, though it may also be buried. The word ''sarcophagus'' comes from ...
.
The puer mingens was revived during the
Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
.
[Lavin, M. ''Art of the Misbegotten: Physicality and the Divine in Renaissance Images''.] Donatello
Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi ( – 13 December 1466), better known as Donatello ( ), was a Republic of Florence, Florentine sculptor of the Renaissance period. Born in Republic of Florence, Florence, he studied classical sculpture and use ...
, who paved the way in the reinvention of the larger motif of the
putti
A putto (; plural putti ) is a figure in a work of art depicted as a chubby male child, usually naked and sometimes winged. Originally limited to profane passions in symbolism,Dempsey, Charles. ''Inventing the Renaissance Putto''. University of ...
in sculpture, depicted one of the earliest Renaissance examples of a puer mingens on the base of his
Judith and Holofernes statue.
From its revival in 1400s Florence, the artistic motif of urinating boys spread throughout the rest of Europe, reaching its height of popularity during the late Renaissance in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries before gradually receding in popularity.
Pueri mingentes locations
![Bruxelles Manneken Pis cropped](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Bruxelles_Manneken_Pis_cropped.jpg)
In Roman times the puer mingens was generally found in depictions of Bacchic rites on children's sarcophagi.
From the Renaissance onward, the puer mingens can be found in both secular and religious art and across a range of media, from illuminated manuscripts, functional fountains, frescoes, to apotropaic amulets.
Owing to the abovementioned associations with fertility, pueri mingentes are found on
deschi da parto – trays given to pregnant women and those who had recently given birth in order to betoken and celebrate the healthy birth of male offspring.
Paintings intended as wedding gifts, such as Lorenzo Lotto's ''
Venus and Cupid'', might also feature urinating boys.
The puer mingens was prominently incorporated into fountains that would shoot water out of the statue's penis. Although this artistic motif is Roman in origin, there is scant attestation of working fountains incorporating pueri mingentes in Roman times; the Romans did, however, have functional statues portraying the adult
Priapus
In Greek mythology, Priapus (; grc, Πρίαπος, ) is a minor rustic fertility god, protector of livestock, fruit plants, gardens and male genitalia. Priapus is marked by his oversized, permanent erection, which gave rise to the medical term ...
urinating, which may have inspired the Renaissance development of statues of urinating boys.
In addition to public spaces, such as the Manneken Pis's location in central Brussels, functional fountains also graced many private sixteenth- and seventeenth-century gardens across Europe.
Gallery
File:Andrea Vaccaro - Susanna and the Elders.jpg, A puer mingens statue in ''Susanna and the Elders'' by Andrea Vaccaro
Andrea Vaccaro (baptised on 8 May 1604 – 18 January 1670) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period. Vaccaro was in his time one of the most successful painters in Naples, a city then under Spanish rule. Very successful and valued in his l ...
, 1650s
File:Nymph and Puer Mingens.jpg, A puer mingens next to a nymph pouring water, 1526–1528, Palazzo del Te
or is a palace in the suburbs of Mantua, Italy. It is a fine example of the mannerist style of architecture, and the acknowledged masterpiece of Giulio Romano. Although formed in Italian, the usual name in English of Palazzo del Te is not that ...
, Mantua
File:Putto mingens.jpg, A close up view of a puer mingens by Annibale Carracci
Annibale Carracci (; November 3, 1560 – July 15, 1609) was an Italian painter and instructor, active in Bologna and later in Rome. Along with his brother and cousin, Annibale was one of the progenitors, if not founders of a leading strand of th ...
, 1600, Palazzo Farnese
Palazzo Farnese () or Farnese Palace is one of the most important High Renaissance List of palaces in Italy#Rome, palaces in Rome. Owned by the Italian Republic, it was given to the French government in 1936 for a period of 99 years, and cur ...
, Rome
File:Villa giulia, portici con affreschi di pietro venale e altri, pergolato 47 putto che fa pipi.jpg, A puer mingens on the ceiling of the Villa Giulia
The Villa Giulia is a villa in Rome, Italy. It was built by Pope Julius III in 1551–1553 on what was then the edge of the city. Today it is publicly owned, and houses the Museo Nazionale Etrusco, a collection of Etruscan art and artifacts.
Hi ...
, Rome
File:Bacanal de los andrios.jpg, A puer mingens painted in ''The Bacchanal of the Andrians
''The Bacchanal of the Andrians'' or ''The Andrians'' is an oil painting by Titian. It is signed "TICIANUS F. ciebat and is dated to 1523–1526.
History
The painting was made by Titian for the Sala dei Baccanali in the Camerini d'alabastro f ...
'' by Titian
Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio (; 27 August 1576), known in English as Titian ( ), was an Italians, Italian (Republic of Venice, Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school (art), ...
, 1523–1526, Museo del Prado
The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from the ...
, Madrid
File:Hypnérotomachie - éd. Martin - p28r.jpeg, Woodcut
Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas that ...
of a puer mingens, from the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili
''Hypnerotomachia Poliphili'' (; ), called in English ''Poliphilo's Strife of Love in a Dream'' or ''The Dream of Poliphilus'', is a book said to be by Francesco Colonna. It is a famous example of an incunable (a work of early printing). The wor ...
, 1499
File:Pierino da vinci, putto da una fontana, 1540 ca. da fraternita dei laici, 02.JPG, A puer mingens statue with a mask covering its genitals, Pierino da Vinci
Pierino da Vinci (; –1553/54), born Pier Francesco di Bartolomeo di Ser Piero da Vinci, was an Italian sculptor, born in the small town of Vinci in Tuscany; he was the nephew of Leonardo da Vinci.
The son of Bartolomeo da Vinci, Leonardo’s ...
, 1540s, Museo nazionale d'arte medievale e moderna della Basilicata
The ''Museo nazionale d'arte medievale e moderna della Basilicata'' () is an art museum
An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own collection. It might be in public or private own ...
, Matera
Matera (, ; Materano: ) is a city in the region of Basilicata, in Southern Italy.
As the capital of the province of Matera, its original settlement lies in two canyons carved by the Gravina River. This area, the Sassi di Matera, is a comple ...
, Italy
File:Boy as Fountain Figure by Andrea della Robbia, Florence, c. 1490, glazed baked clay - Bode-Museum - DSC03732.JPG, A glazed terracotta
Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous.
In applied art, craft, construction, a ...
statue of a puer mingens, Andrea della Robbia, c. 1490, Bode Museum
The Bode-Museum (English: ''Bode Museum''), formerly called the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum (''Emperor Frederick Museum''), is a listed building on the Museum Island in the historic centre of Berlin. It was built from 1898 to 1904 by order of Germ ...
, Berlin
File:Bartolomeo Di Fruosino - Desco da parto (verso) - WGA01342.jpg, A puer mingens on a desco da parto
A painted ''desco da parto'' (a birth tray or birth salver) was an important symbolic gift on the occasion of a successful birth in late medieval and Early Modern Florence and Siena. The surviving painted ''deschi'' represented in museum colle ...
, Bartolomeo di Fruosino, 1428, New York Historical Society
The New-York Historical Society is an American history museum and library in New York City, along Central Park West between 76th and 77th Streets, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The society was founded in 1804 as New York's first museum. ...
File:Breviarium Grimani - Februar.jpg, A puer mingens depicted in the ''Grimani Breviary
The House of Grimani was a prominent Venetian patrician family, including three Doges of Venice. They were active in trade, politics and later the ownership of theatres and opera-houses. Notable members included:
Notable members
*Domenico Grima ...
'', c. 1510, Biblioteca Marciana
The Marciana Library or Library of Saint Mark ( it, italic=no, Biblioteca Marciana, but in historical documents commonly referred to as ) is a public library in Venice, Italy. It is one of the earliest surviving public libraries and repositori ...
, Venice
See also
*
Putti
A putto (; plural putti ) is a figure in a work of art depicted as a chubby male child, usually naked and sometimes winged. Originally limited to profane passions in symbolism,Dempsey, Charles. ''Inventing the Renaissance Putto''. University of ...
– Artistic depictions of naked boys
*
Manneken Pis
''Manneken Pis'' (; ) is a landmark bronze fountain sculpture in central Brussels, Belgium, depicting a puer mingens; a naked little boy urinating into the fountain's basin. Though its existence is attested as early as the 15th century, it wa ...
(1619) – A bronze statue in Brussels of a naked little boy urinating
*
Tea pet
Tea Pet or Tea Lover's Pet (), also known as Chachong, is a small clay figure which is kept by some tea drinkers for good luck. They are usually made of " zisha" or Yixing clay, from the region near Yixing in Jiangsu province, China. Just like Yix ...
References
External links
* {{Commons category-inline, Pueri mingentes
Latin words and phrases
Renaissance art
Visual motifs
Iconography
Phallic monuments
Ornaments