Picturing Punishment: The Spectacle and Material Afterlife of the Criminal Body in the Dutch Republic

Anuradha Gobin

Published by University of Toronto Press 2021

Picturing Punishment

The Spectacle and Material Afterlife of the Criminal Body in the Dutch Republic

Anuradha Gobin

https://doi.org/10.3138/9781487518806

Overview
Contents

About this book

Bringing together themes in the history of art, punishment, religion, and the history of medicine, Picturing Punishment provides new insights into the wider importance of the criminal to civic life.

Author / Editor information

Gobin Anuradha :

Anuradha Gobin is an associate professor in the Department of Art at the University of Calgary.

Reviews

Justina Spencer, Assistant Professor of Early Modern Studies, University of King’s College:

"Gobin’s pioneering study of the visual and material culture of the criminal body is a fascinating exploration of the afterlife of the cadaver and its attendant imagery. By training her sights on the visceral and at times gory imagery of the gallows and executed bodies, her research unearths how physical punishment was not only showcased as public spectacle, but also capitalized on as a well-spring for artistic and medical knowledge throughout the early modern period. Picturing Punishment marks an important contribution to scholarship on art of the Dutch Golden Age, the medical humanities, and the history of crime in the West."

Bronwen Wilson, Director of the Center for 17th- and 18th-Century Studies and William Andrews Clark Memorial Library and Professor of Art History, University of California, Los Angeles:

"Unearthing an extraordinary and sometimes riveting visual and material archive, Anuradha Gobin leads readers through the spaces, apparatuses, instruments, and display of the criminal body in the Dutch Republic. With probing and deft analysis of prints, drawings, paintings, and sculptures, Gobin demonstrates their manifold functions and the distinctive evidence visual imagery yields, how it solicits interaction in diverse places, fostering debate and a plurality of publics."

Elizabeth A. Honig, Professor of Northern European Renaissance Art, University of Maryland:

"[In contrast to the secretive modern penal system], norms of early modern justice as social control insisted on keeping criminal bodies visible before, during, and even after their punishment. Gobin draws upon an amazing array of sources – archives and literature, print culture and architecture, and paintings from the famous to the anonymous – to reveal to us the visual fate of the criminal body in the Dutch Republic. A fascinating contribution to the history of law and justice as well as the history of art."

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1 Structures of Power: Constructing and Publicizing the New Amsterdam Town Hall Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	21
2 Procession and Execution Rituals: Moving through the New Amsterdam Town Hall Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	48
3 Disposal and Display: The Criminal Corpse on the Gallows Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	78
4 Subversion and Symbolic Transformation: Recreation, Ambush, and Humour at the Gallows Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	103
5 Serving the Public Good: Reform, Prestige, and the Productive Criminal Body in Amsterdam Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
6 The Transformation of Touch: Flayed Skin and the Visual and Material Afterlife of the Criminal Body in the Leiden Anatomical Theatre Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	158
7 The Symbolism of Skin: Illustrating the Flayed Body Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	181
Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	211
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	217
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	245
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	275

Language: English
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Audience: College/higher education;Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 304
Illustrations
- Illustrations: 100
- Other: 75 b&w illustrations and 25 colour illustrations
Keywords: criminals; punishment; art history; execution rituals; public spectacles; afterlife; material culture; deviance; early modern; Dutch Republic; Renaissance; history of crime; art and crime; gallows

eBook

Published: July 30, 2021
ISBN: 9781487518806