In Your Face

Depictions of scantily-clad young gods have been around for millennia, and no one has minded. So why has a new bronze sculpture of the river god Aeneus in Simbach am Inn raised hackles over the border in Austria?

The problem is, Aeneus' pert posterior is pointing rather pronouncedly towards Braunau, the birthplace of Adolf Hitler. And the town's residents feel personally affronted.

Relations have hit rock bottom.

"His backside is right in our faces," says Braunau's deputy mayor Helmut Bogner. "And we don't like it."

Artist Domink Dengl says it couldn't be helped -- and the public should butt out. After all, Aeneus is perched astride a large fish leaping out of the river, and as the Bavarian sculptor says, "the fish could hardly be leaping backwards."

The bottom line

Simbach's mayor Richard Findl is more conciliatory.

"It was never our intention to offend anyone," he insists. Nonetheless, he says he predicted the outrage.

"I told the artist he should steer clear of nudity, or there would trouble," he said.

"I don't want to be pedantic," he stressed. "But one has to be sensitive in a border town like this."

Moreover, nudity in art is hardly new.

"Who's bothered by Michelangelo's Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel?" he asks.