The Secret Behind Ugly Medieval Babies

There’s no nice way to put it: in medieval art, babies were pretty damn ugly. 

But why?

It’s not because artists hadn’t worked out how to paint them properly, in fact, this was a deliberate stylistic choice… In medieval artwork, one baby popped up a whole lot more than the others: Jesus Christ.

There was a popular notion that Jesus was born “perfectly formed” and remained “unchanged” over time; this led to artists depicting him as a sort of weird little old man, and influenced portrayals of other babies too.

This all changed with the dawn of the Renaissance, and a new emphasis on realism in art.

Plus, as artists began to embrace non-religious subjects, wealthy patrons could commission portraits of their own families, and they didn’t want their own children looking like little old men.

So, ugly babies were out and cute babies were in. Way less disturbing, but nowhere near as fun…