Description
Ficus is the genus of approximately 800 species of vines, spreading trees, or shrubs more commonly known as fig trees. These woody plants have been cultivated for thousands of years and prized for their edible fruit, which may be eaten fresh, dried, or preserved. Being one of the first fruit trees to be domesticated by primitive peoples, the fig has secured a place in history, myth, and religion. Even as the fruit of the fig tree served as a dietary staple among Ancient Greeks, a species of fig tree, F. religiosa, is said to have provided shade for Buddha during his attainment of enlightenment and has been appointed a sacred tree in India. The fig leaf also has attained a special place in art history, used to hide the marble penises and stone nudes that were, at various times, seen as moral and mortal dangers to public morality. We might perhaps understand this obsession that swept over Europe through most of the 19th and early 20th century, during the infamous Victorian era, but if we dig even deeper, back to the early Renaissance, we discover that it became a common habit to hide antique sculptures of nude males and females with fig leaves, especially in Italy, out of deference to Christian views of the nude body as invitations to lust.










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