Abstract
The contribution focuses on some functions of obscenities in late medieval visual culture. It draws attention primarily to Neidhart von Reuental's famous Violet Prank (Vielchenschwank).
The popular story associated with the German poet since the beginning of the 14th century was depicted in several medieval mural paintings, prints and reliefs in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Recently, I have discovered the depiction story also in the wall paintings of the House at the Golden Lily in Prague's Old Town.
The Bohemian context is even more important because the prank story about the violet exchanged for a turd was discussed during the university disputes connected with the beginning of the Hussite reformation in the 1410s. According to texts of scholars Jan Hus and Stanislaus of Znojmo, it seems that the comical anecdote should be understood in the broader sense as a parable of the frequently deceptive appearance of things that may be handsome on the surface but hide foul content.
Such interpretation could help to explain principles of other comical or obscene depictions such as the fables depicted on the painted Lower Saxonian table in Musée de Cluny, aris or well-known penis trees which appear apart from Massa Marittima in murals of South Tyrolian castles (Moos, Lichtenberg) or elsewhere in other media. Hus's critique of paintings with themes from 'The Life of Neidhart' could thus point to the broader notion of medieval comic genre serving as a source of witty 'truths' about the nature of the physical world.