religious autofellatio gargoyle carving

The image above comes from a breezy-but-detailed investigation of the phenomenon of autofellatio through the ages, as written by C. Brian Smith for Mel Magazine. In A Cultural History of Men Sucking Their Own Dicks, Smith shares the archbishop-autofellatio corbel photograph with this explanation:

A statue of Archbishop of Cologne Konrad von Hochstaden blowing himself sits atop the 14th-century Cologne City Hall. Some say the archbishop was unpopular among stone-carvers because he put a large tax on “hops” in beer so they created the statue in defiance. Others believe it’s a modern incarnation (circa 1950) meant to replace a statue destroyed during World War II. If so, the modern sculptor was having a laugh at the expense of his employers and future generations. Either way, gargoyle sculptures like this were known to be self-indulgent jokes by the artists of the day.

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