From Criminal to Courtier

From Criminal to Courtier
Author: David Kunzle
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 717
Release: 2021-10-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004475680

The art of the Netherlands (Dutch and Flemish) is unique in Early Modern Europe in its concern for military cruelty against civilians, principally the peasantry. Decimated by time and changes in taste, this popular iconography proves varied and extensive, stretching from Bruegel to and past Rubens. 'Massacres of the Innocents' continue to be a favourite subject through the Eighty Years War, in contrast to ruling-class glorifications of war. Dutch patriotic siege prints lay claim to 'scientific' precision in landscapes free of military terror, while the idea of military conquest is presented as generous rather than cruel in the ever-popular figure of Scipio Africanus. Most of the pictorial material is unfamiliar, some of it even to specialists and never before published; new light is shed on the more familiar phenomena of the civic guard groups and Ter Borch courtier-officers, 'good soldiers' overcoming a bad image.

Peasant Scenes and Landscapes

Peasant Scenes and Landscapes
Author: Larry Silver
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Total Pages: 393
Release: 2012-01-04
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0812222113

Larry Silver investigates the origins of new pictorial types and their media as a phenomenon of sixteenth-century Antwerp and interprets several pictorial genres as he charts their evolution and their role in the development and marketing of individual artistic styles.

The Book of the Courtier

The Book of the Courtier
Author: Baldesar Castiglione
Publisher: Hackett Publishing
Total Pages: 370
Release: 2023-05-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1647921163

Peter Hainsworth's sparkling, eminently readable new English translation of The Book of the Courtier, Baldesar Castiglione's (1478–1529) literary and philosophical masterpiece, captures all the nuance, stylistic flair, and humor of this foundational work of Renaissance humanism.

Art and Dis-illusion in the Long Sixteenth Century

Art and Dis-illusion in the Long Sixteenth Century
Author: Larry Silver
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 417
Release: 2023
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9004504419

Dramatic changes during the Reformation era in Northern Europe, such as witchcraft and new global discoveries, are examined through visual culture, both prints and paintings.

Shakespeare's Ear

Shakespeare's Ear
Author: Tim Rayborn
Publisher: Skyhorse
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2017-08-22
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 151071958X

Shakespeare’s Ear presents dark and sometimes funny pieces of fact and folklore that bedevil the mostly unknown history of theater. All manner of skullduggery, from revenge to murder, from affairs to persecution, proves that the drama off-stage was just as intense as any portrayed on it. The stories include those of: An ancient Greek writer of tragedies who dies when an eagle drops a tortoise on his head. A sixteenth-century English playwright who lives a double life as a spy and perishes horribly, stabbed above the eye. A small Parisian theater where grisly horrors unfold on stage. The gold earring that Shakespeare wears in the Chandos portrait, and its connections to bohemians and pirates of the time. Journey back to see theatrical shenanigans from the ancient Near East, explore the violent plays of ancient Greece and Rome, revel in the Elizabethan and Jacobean golden age of blood-thirsty drama, delight in the zany and subversive antics of the Commedia dell’arte, and tremble at ghostly incursions into playhouses. Here you will find many fine examples of playwrights, actors, and audiences alike being horrible to each other over the centuries.

Picturing Punishment

Picturing Punishment
Author: Anuradha Gobin
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 303
Release: 2021-07-30
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1487518811

Picturing Punishment examines representations of criminal bodies as they moved in, through, and out of publicly accessible spaces in the city during punishment rituals in the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic. Once put to death, the criminal cadaver did not come to rest. Its movement through public spaces indicated the potent afterlife of the deviant body, especially its ability to transform civic life. Focusing on material culture associated with key sites of punishment, Anuradha Gobin argues that the circulation of visual media related to criminal punishments was a particularly effective means of generating discourse and formulating public opinion, especially regarding the efficacy of civic authority. Certain types of objects related to criminal punishments served a key role in asserting republican ideals and demonstrating the ability of officials to maintain order and control. Conversely, the circulation of other types of images, such as inexpensive paintings and prints, had the potential to subvert official messages. As Gobin shows, visual culture thus facilitated a space in which potentially dissenting positions could be formulated while also bringing together seemingly disparate groups of people in a quest for new knowledge. Combining a diverse array of sources including architecture, paintings, prints, anatomical illustrations, and preserved body parts, Picturing Punishment demonstrates how the criminal corpse was reactivated, reanimated, and in many ways reintegrated into society.