Fig leaf

This article is about the censorship practice. For other uses, see Fig leaf (disambiguation).

A fig leaf cast in plaster used to cover the genitals of a copy of a statue of David in the Cast Courts of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Today, the fig leaf is no longer used, but it is displayed in a case at the back of the cast's plinth.

"Fig leaf" is an idiom for obscuring an act or object considered embarrassing or distasteful with something of innocuous appearance. The literal use of a fig leaf for this purpose originates in Western painting and sculpture, where leaves would be used by artists themselves or by later censors in order to hide the genitalia of a subject. Use of the fig plant in particular came about as a Biblical reference to the Book of Genesis, in which Adam and Eve used fig leaves to cover their nudity after eating the forbidden fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

A "fig-leaf edition" of a work is known as an expurgation or Bowdlerization.