This essay investigates how sacred images were thought to modify sexual desires in Renaissance Italy, specifically during the Counter-Reformation. Drawing on spiritual literature as well as Early Modern medical belief about the role of images in sexual stimulation, this article sheds new light on the vexing issue of the apparently erotic quality of some sacred images.
https://www.brepolsonline.net/doi/epdf/10.1484/M.ES-EB.5.121906