'The Belly Full'

Everyone knows the Manneken Pis of Brussels. Above the door of restaurant Buikske Vol stands the Ghent Manneken. Once upon a time, there lived a certain Frans van de Kerckhove, ‘merchant of wine in this city.’ As a sign for his trade, he had a Manneken Pis made of terracotta, based on a figurine from ancient Greece. This was indeed the Bacchus symbol, the symbol for wine sales. The original Greek figurine, of course, does not stand somewhere along the street. It is preserved in the Louvre.

We may also be dealing with the symbol of leather workers. Urine was used to soften leather. In the past, one could earn a little extra by selling half a liter of urine. This also gave rise to the profession of urine tasters. When purchasing, one had to be certain that no water had been added to the substance.

For those who might doubt all of this, there is a third explanation. In classical antiquity and the Renaissance, our little figure was a symbol of fertility. Erasmus wrote in his Praise of Folly: ‘From that comic strange thing, which one cannot talk about without bursting into laughter, all humans emerge. That is the holy spring from which all life surges, despite all the world explanations of philosophers.’ In the second half of the last century, a few prudes broke off that ‘comic strange thing’ and replaced it with a huge plaster fig leaf, all for the sake of good morals. The example you see here is thus a renewed bronze version.

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