Fine Arts Commons^™

Visual Forms, Visceral Themes: Understanding Bodies, Pain, And Torture In Renaissance Art, Helena Guzik Fcrh '12

The Fordham Undergraduate Research Journal

Despite its relevance to modern discussions, the scholarly treatment of torture in art is relatively infrequent. This project explores, through the visual evidence of artistic works, the implications of Renaissance philosophies surrounding the human body in the context of pain and particularly the physical suffering endured during torture. By examining varying techniques of representing the human form across an array of artistic media, this article strives to illuminate the struggle between the rise of scientific naturalism and prevailing currents of spiritual dualism when considering the question of the body in torment. In highlighting the artist as narrator of Renaissance society’s …