Images of Rape

Images of Rape: The "Heroic" Tradition and Its Alternatives is the first in-depth exploration of rape as it has been portrayed in Western art from the twelfth through seventeenth centuries. Examining the full range of representations, from those that glorify rape to those that condemn it, Diane Wolfthal illuminates the complex web of attitudes towards sexual violence that existed in medieval and early modern society. Using Picture Bibles, law treatises, Justice Paintings, war prints, and the manuscripts of Christine de Pizan, among other visual documentation, Wolfthal demonstrates how this range of images still influences the contemporary debate about sexual violence.

First sentence: To most art historians the word "rape"brings to mind Poussin's Rape of the Sabines, Titian's Rape of Europa, or some such depiction in which the assailant is a Greek or Roman god or hero (Figs. 1 and 13).

Year

1999

Language

English

Publisher

Cambridge University Press

Editions

1

Pages

304

ISBN

9780521794428

Data source: Wikidata