I have a sore mouth today, due to my awful gums, the bane of my life. I guess this was why, when I was looking through my photos for blog inspiration, I was drawn to this photo of the ‘Zahnweh-Herrgott’, or ‘Lord of the Toothache’ from the back of Vienna’s most famous cathedral, Stephansdom, at the very heart of the city.

 

 

I realised that I didn’t actually know the reasons why it was called Lord of the Toothache (or sometimes Christ with a Toothache), and despite looking in pain, the Christ figure is not depicted clutching his jaw or pulling a lop-sided face. So, I thought I’d better look up the story behind this strange naming.

 

The fourteenth-century ‘Ecce Homo’ figure was originally on the exterior of the church, one of the many devotional statues that were venerated by the people of Vienna in their daily acts of worship. The figure faced the area which was then the church’s graveyard. According to folklore, three men (in some accounts many more) mocked the agonised figure of Christ saying he looked as if he had toothache. Later that night, those that mocked were themselves afflicted with terrible toothache, which was only cured once they returned to Stephansdom to ask forgiveness from the statue.

 

Whether true or not, the story reminds us of the original function of these types of images, which was to encourage an affective response from the viewer, who was being invited to identify with Christ’s pain and suffering, to really feel it. Maybe the story was made up to remind the people of Vienna of the supposed power of these devotional statues to make Christ’s agony real to his people, and that this was no laughing matter.

 

It also makes me smile to think of how the Viennese love making up funny names for things. It reminds me of Dublin, where the monument to Anna Livia (formerly on O’Connell Street) is affectionately known as ‘The Floozie in the Jacuzzi’ (and more colourful versions of the same), and another piece of public art (near the Ha’penny Bridge), which depicts two women sitting on a bench with shopping bags at their feet is known as ‘The Hags with the Bags’. In Vienna, perhaps the most famous colloquial name is that given to the foliated dome of the Secession Building, the ‘Golden Cabbage’.

 

 

I’m sure there are many more nicknames for public statues in both Dublin and Vienna that I was going to mention in this post, but toothache is preventing me from thinking straight. If you know any, please do write them in the comments below. In the meantime, and because I can’t instantly be transported back to medieval Vienna to be cured by the Zahnweh-Herrgot, I’m going to have a couple of paracetamol and an early night. Tschüss!