“The Temptation of Eve” from the cathedral at Autun dates to about 1130. It was the first large-scale nude sculpture since Antiquity, and has become a hallmark of the “Renaissance of the Twelfth Century.” Although not as naturalistic as Ancient Roman sculptures could get, the Eve portrait gets kudos for representing the nude female body in a positive light.
London’s East Smithfield Cemetery made news this week because of a recent study suggesting that the Medieval Black Death provided impetus for human evolution in…