https://slate.com/human-interest/2011/12/vatican-guide-the-popes-pornographic-bathroom.htmlWell-traveled Vatican guide: The pope’s pornographic bathroom
Inside the Vatican’s pornographic bathroom.
By Tony Perrottet
Dec 09, 2011
The legendary Stufetta del Bibbiena within the Vatican Palace, decorated with erotic imagery by Raphael in 1516; today, several of the fresco panels have been damaged and the bath removed, but the chamber still remains within the Papal Apartments.
Rumors that the Vatican is filled with perverse artworks are as old as the palace itself. In 1516, the Renaissance master Raphael decorated a bathroom within the Papal Apartments with erotic frescos. Today, the wicked gallery is called the Stufetta della Bibbiena, the “small heated room of Cardinal Bibbiena,” after the worldly official who commissioned the work. It was, of course, a different era, when Bibbiena, like most papal officials, was a patron of the arts more than a servant of God.
He was also the author of risqué plays and an erudite man-about-town. Like his peers, Bibbiena was entranced by the ribald pagan imagery that was being unearthed in Imperial Roman ruins. He asked his friend Raphael to decorate his lodgings in the fashionable classical style, complete with naked nymphs being spied upon by lusting satyrs, with no anatomical detail hidden.
A Catholic art expert rediscovered it in the mid-19th century. But access remained limited, to say the least—largely because, after 1870, this section of the palace was turned into the pope’s own residence, and Cardinal Bibbiena’s ancient bedroom was used for official diplomatic meetings with visiting heads of state. Stories of the restored bathroom filtered out amongst the cognoscenti, but only the rarest visitor was permitted a viewing.
It was my greatest challenge.
I sent out emails to every department in the Vatican I could think of, trying to find out who might grant me a viewing. I asked Italian art academics. I quizzed Dr. Giovanni Maria Vian, erudite editor of L’Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper. I presented myself to the Secretary of State as a scholar studying “the pagan influence on Renaissance art” —which, of course, was quite true.
And then, out of the blue, I received two conflicting emails. When I opened the first, I gave a shout for joy: It was from the State Secretariat, giving me an appointment to visit the Stufetta the following Monday at 4.30 p.m. “I hope you enjoy the visit,” it concluded amiably. The second informed me in no uncertain terms that the Stufetta was closed to outsiders. End of story.
I decided to print out the first email and turn up anyway.
At 2 p.m., a monsignor telephoned me to say, va bene, the visit is on again. Apparently an Italian Minister was scheduled to meet the pope in his audience room. But if I turned up on time, they could slip me into the bathroom just beforehand during a 10-minute window.
By the time I turned up at the Vatican gates, I was a nervous wreck.
But then we were inside. That tight, vaulted room—twice as high as its 8-foot width—was covered with cavorting naked deities. Raphael had designed his frescoed panels like a graphic novel, recounting the adventures of Venus, the goddess of love, and Cupid, the god of erotic desire, for Cardinal Bibbiena to admire as he lounged in his hot tub. At knee level, the original silver faucet was crafted into the face of a leering satyr. One panel showed the naked goddess stepping daintily stepped into her foam-fringed shell. In others, she admires herself in a mirror, lounges between Adonis’ legs and swims in sensual abandon. A couple of the frames, even more risqué, have been destroyed. One, recorded by an early visitor, showed Vulcan attempting to rape Minerva.
Embarrassingly, I had to ask the monsignor to stand aside, so I could get a proper view of the most notorious image, of the randy goat-god Pan leaping from the bushes with a monstrous erection. I was shocked to see that the image had been vandalized. Someone had etched out Pan’s manhood and filled in the gap with white paint. This, of course, made the object even larger and more noticeable—another parable about the futility of censorship.
Soon I was back outside, heading for the exit. I was so elated, I felt like high-fiving the Swiss Guards at the gates. I’d beheld the fabled Stufetta and lived to tell about it. The images hardly qualified as jaw-dropping porn, but erotica is all about context. To find them buried deep in the Vatican, still surviving the centuries of guilt and repression, gave them a charge no click of the mouse could ever achieve.
As it says in the gospel of Luke: “For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light.” It may take a few centuries longer than expected, but the Vatican is on a different clock than you and I."
Again, historical truth. This is the building where you claim God lives.
Radiance3 wrote:
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, Where is your historical truth?, Lies, fabricated, none. Your Luther copied the Scriptures from the Catholics 501 years ago. Christ's church has the 1,987 years of history. Where are the sacred Traditions of the Apostles? Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli buried them out and created their own, against the mandate of Christ.
Your claim is absurd, lies, deceptive, and with no truth. Your man-made gospel is not of
Christ but of Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli. You denied and rejected the command of the Gospel of Christ through His Catholic Church, 1,897 years ago.
You rejected history and created your own, in order to perpetuate your man-made doctrine against Christ mandate. Yet, you claim you are of Christ. How, deceptive could that be? It is in total violation of God's Gospel. Christ does not sleep. He knows the malicious and destructive intentions of your protests against Him.
You now wallow in the glitters of Satan, along with the 47,000 protestant pastors worldwide, using Christ's Scriptures as their merchandise to making billions and millions of dollars under the command of Lucifer. Facts? Just Google the protestant pastors, several pages will show all their faces shining under the glitters of Lucifer. Shame!!
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