Erotica, Curiosa – Articulated Priest Figurine – Anticlerical – Folk Art – Lustful Priest

Late 19th century France – probably Massif Central or Eastern France. A striking polychrome wood folk sculpture depicting a priest in prayer, his hands clasped and his face flushed with red cheeks. The anonymous artist blends humor, satire, and social observation in a rare balance between derision and fervor. The figure, with his trimmed beard, steady gaze, and black cassock cinched with a wide cord, seems to have stepped straight out of a small village altar. But behind this apparent devotion lies an ingenious mechanism: lifting the lower front of the robe reveals a licentious scene, true to the spirit of the anticlerical curiosities of the late 19th century. These figures, produced in the French countryside and sometimes in workshops in the Jura region, were intended to mock the clergy or to entertain in taverns. Part sculpture, part toy, they offered a playful critique of religious power while retaining the naiveté of a kind of evening art: that of a people who, through the sculptor's hand, laughed at their oppression. The original polychromy, a deep black enhanced with red and ochre, accentuates the contrast between the austerity of the cassock and the warmth of the face. Every facial feature, every fold of the robe, contributes to the ironic tension between the sacred and the profane. Antique patina, slight wear consistent with age. The trapdoor mechanism is not functional due to a missing wire. Height: 14.5 cm. Shipping: ALL DELIVERIES ARE MADE BY DHL EXPRESS ONLY.