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rft.atitle Visual Aggression: The Martyrs’ Cycle at Schwäbisch Gmünd
rft.epage 59
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rft.issn 0016-920X
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rft.jtitle Gesta
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rft.pub University of Chicago Press
rft.date 2013-03-01
x.date 2013-03-01T00:00:00Z
rft.spage 43
rft.volume 52
abstract <label>Abstract</label> <p>The martyrs’ cycle in the archivolts of the north choir portal of the Holy Cross Minster at Schwäbisch Gmünd (1351–70s) reveals a strikingly brutal parade of violence—decapitation, split skulls, mutilated organs, nails and teeth being torn out. Each of the martyrdom scenes is expropriated from the narrative sequence of the saints’ vitae, epitomizing the moment of immediate violent action. Although such representations ostensibly allude to each saint’s<italic>imitatio Christi</italic>, their visual semiotics suggest otherwise; the unusual iconography of these martyrs depicts them in effeminate, submissive postures, screaming and weeping, in contrast to their usual impassibility. While earlier studies have interpreted medieval violence imagery as either allegorical or reflecting interior thoughts, or have focused on its connection to the liturgy of punishment in early modern times, this article approaches the tortures depicted at Gmünd as concerned with violence as a moral problem. The visual aggression constituted by this monumental public art of extreme violence confronts the viewer somatically with intense brutality unsanctified by pictorial tradition or memory. The viewers’ initial encounter with this series of deformed figures therefore must have been experienced as something new and violently shocking that postponed the moment of devotional immersion. Tracing the contemporary discourse on violence and cruelty, I contend that violence per se is what appears here as a subject of artistic speculation.</p>
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doi 10.1086/669684
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description <label>Abstract</label> <p>The martyrs’ cycle in the archivolts of the north choir portal of the Holy Cross Minster at Schwäbisch Gmünd (1351–70s) reveals a strikingly brutal parade of violence—decapitation, split skulls, mutilated organs, nails and teeth being torn out. Each of the martyrdom scenes is expropriated from the narrative sequence of the saints’ vitae, epitomizing the moment of immediate violent action. Although such representations ostensibly allude to each saint’s<italic>imitatio Christi</italic>, their visual semiotics suggest otherwise; the unusual iconography of these martyrs depicts them in effeminate, submissive postures, screaming and weeping, in contrast to their usual impassibility. While earlier studies have interpreted medieval violence imagery as either allegorical or reflecting interior thoughts, or have focused on its connection to the liturgy of punishment in early modern times, this article approaches the tortures depicted at Gmünd as concerned with violence as a moral problem. The visual aggression constituted by this monumental public art of extreme violence confronts the viewer somatically with intense brutality unsanctified by pictorial tradition or memory. The viewers’ initial encounter with this series of deformed figures therefore must have been experienced as something new and violently shocking that postponed the moment of devotional immersion. Tracing the contemporary discourse on violence and cruelty, I contend that violence per se is what appears here as a subject of artistic speculation.</p>
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spelling Pinkus, Assaf 0016-920X University of Chicago Press https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/669684 <label>Abstract</label> <p>The martyrs’ cycle in the archivolts of the north choir portal of the Holy Cross Minster at Schwäbisch Gmünd (1351–70s) reveals a strikingly brutal parade of violence—decapitation, split skulls, mutilated organs, nails and teeth being torn out. Each of the martyrdom scenes is expropriated from the narrative sequence of the saints’ vitae, epitomizing the moment of immediate violent action. Although such representations ostensibly allude to each saint’s<italic>imitatio Christi</italic>, their visual semiotics suggest otherwise; the unusual iconography of these martyrs depicts them in effeminate, submissive postures, screaming and weeping, in contrast to their usual impassibility. While earlier studies have interpreted medieval violence imagery as either allegorical or reflecting interior thoughts, or have focused on its connection to the liturgy of punishment in early modern times, this article approaches the tortures depicted at Gmünd as concerned with violence as a moral problem. The visual aggression constituted by this monumental public art of extreme violence confronts the viewer somatically with intense brutality unsanctified by pictorial tradition or memory. The viewers’ initial encounter with this series of deformed figures therefore must have been experienced as something new and violently shocking that postponed the moment of devotional immersion. Tracing the contemporary discourse on violence and cruelty, I contend that violence per se is what appears here as a subject of artistic speculation.</p> Visual Aggression: The Martyrs’ Cycle at Schwäbisch Gmünd Gesta
spellingShingle Pinkus, Assaf, Gesta, Visual Aggression: The Martyrs’ Cycle at Schwäbisch Gmünd
title Visual Aggression: The Martyrs’ Cycle at Schwäbisch Gmünd
title_full Visual Aggression: The Martyrs’ Cycle at Schwäbisch Gmünd
title_fullStr Visual Aggression: The Martyrs’ Cycle at Schwäbisch Gmünd
title_full_unstemmed Visual Aggression: The Martyrs’ Cycle at Schwäbisch Gmünd
title_short Visual Aggression: The Martyrs’ Cycle at Schwäbisch Gmünd
title_sort visual aggression: the martyrs’ cycle at schwäbisch gmünd
url https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/669684, https://doi.org/10.1086/669684