Why are penises in old paintings so small?

If we look at depiction of penises in art, we will see that many changes have occurred over the centuries. They’ve gone from being quite small (hi David) to being much larger. But what does it mean? Does this mean that the human penis has grown over the centuries or has it only changed in the way it is presented?

This question was asked last year by a group of scientists from the School of Medicine Selcuk University, in Turkey. To answer this, they conducted an analysis depiction of penises in art, focusing solely on the paintings. In total they found 232 paintings from 21 countries., although for most European countries this may represent a bias. The oldest works were written in 15th centuryand the most recent ones were from XXI Century.

They discovered that this is not a perception, but a reality. Depiction of penises in art preserved for centuriesbut experienced a clear increase in size in 20th and 21st centuries. This, according to the authors of the study, has an explanation. But this has nothing to do with genetics or the health of a person’s reproductive organs. Rather, it is a psychological problem.

Analysis of penises in art

When selecting paintings, these scientists excluded all those depicting children or an erect penis. They just wanted resting penises of adult men.

Thus, they were able to make a generalization in which they took into account one more factor: proportions. In a painting, it is difficult to determine whether the penis looks large because it is there or because of the perspective. In fact, this is a typical trick in modern porn. Let the actresses be miniature so that the penis of their companions, located next to their hand, appears much larger in comparison.

To avoid this resource, which may also have been used intentionally or accidentally in the past, these scientists measured the proportion penis/nose or penis/ear. They are equivalent because the nose is assumed to be the same size as the ear.

The coefficient would be 1 if the penis were exactly the same size as the ear. However, it will be below 1 for smaller penises and above 1 for larger penises.

Analyzing the size of penises in art, they noticed that the figure has been around 1 for several centuries. In the 15th century it was 1059 people.. Later, in XVI, it fell only slightly, to 0.954, while in XVII it remained almost the same, from 0.962, and in XVIII it increased slightly, to 1.002. Later, in the 19th century, it decreased slightly again, to 0.941. But the most interesting thing is happening now.

In the 20th century, the figure left 1 behind and grew. up to 1207which is growing even more in the 21st century when Now it is 1576..

There has been a very clear increase, but why?

Porn and complexes

We’ve already seen that porn is obsessed with making penises look as big as possible. This gives rise to many complexes in men, who usually have two very deep-rooted ideas. one is one misconception about penis size the rest of the men. They usually believe that the average size is much larger than their actual size. As a consequence, the other is catastrophic perception of one’s own peniswhich they perceive to be less than it actually is compared to the average.

The authors of this study are mainly urologists. They know the penis well as an organ outside of art, and they know that nothing made it grow. But they see a lot of complexes, as well as people who would like to undergo some kind of intervention to increase their size.

Perhaps this is what led to larger penises in art. It is a reflection of what is considered normal. A reflection of what many men would like to have. But thinking, in general, is very far from reality.