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"Diseased" Bodies

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Islamic individuals being drawn with bodies that appeared diseased, deformed, or disfigured in any way was a common strategy implemented in Christian-made works of art. Bodies of figures with darker skin were often contorted in unnatural or uncomfortable positions, including hunched backs and arms and legs twisted at odd angles, whereas the white Christians stood straight up and therefore appeared stronger and more respectable. The distorted physique of the people in these images reemphasized that those living east of Europe existed outside of what Christianity considered “normal” and “acceptable”.
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"Saracens appear monstrous by being fused with animals... spiny bristles like a boar, or skin as hard as iron, or they bark like dogs.... Equally monstrous would be a habitual embrace of lies, so that the relationship of Muslims to deception and falsehood - a relation that is offered as constitutive of their very identity and self-definition - hollows out and denatures their humanity at their core" (Heng 118).

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Similarly, the artists intentionally blurred some of the lines between animals and humans appearing in these paintings. A lot of Islamic figures were manipulated to possess some animalistic and/or monstrous features, such as dog-like snouts for noses, or feet resembling paws. This form of dehumanization contributed to the negative impressions of Islamic people spreading throughout Europe, and particularly attempted to draw comparisons to monsters, or even demons and devils in some cases.

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