Mexico. 1998. I’d stopped into a border church and was sitting in the cool back shadows when an old lady approached the statue of St. Anthony, rubbed her hand on his foot, then kissed it. I thought, “She must be blind. How very touching.” Not long after, another parishioner kissed the saint. By the end of the hour, even a young chulo had come to Anthony to pay his respects.
So what’s with kissing and touching statues? Why do we feel compelled to “own” public sculptures with our hands?
The sensory interaction between statue and viewer is one of the things that fascinates me about public sculpture. It’s what makes it different from murals and other “flat stuff”, after all. Everyone, from kids to sedate businessmen (and I’ve actually seen this happen) want to touch their favorite pieces. And it’s legal!
The foot of the fallen colonial in Boston on the Massacre monument is bright metal now, work from years of stroking by reverent visitors. For years, legend had it that this foot belonged to Crispus Attucks, the first victim shot by the British in the Boston Massacre and the first black victim of the cause. But a careful search of the faces in the high relief will show Attucks clearly in the background.
The privates of Victor Noir’s effigy in Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris have been rubbed shiny by those who want to get pregnant. Somewhere along the line, the journalist shot by Pierre Bonaparte picked up the reputation as a fertility symbol. One doesn’t need to state out loud how the real Noir would feel about this…
And of course there’s the Goose Girl of Gottingen, a figure out of a Brother’s Grimm fairytale whose main job these days is to get kissed by those who have earned their PhD at the university.  In 1920, the Mayor tried to forbid the practice but had to buckle after the students threatened to leave the city.
(Photo from DW-World DE website)
"Just as a pilgrim might kiss the statue of a saint in hopes of receiving forgiveness for sins, so your acceptance of my kiss undoes any sin I committed by holding your hand.” Romeo to Juliet
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