Bielefeld, : transcript Verlag, 2016

9783837632842

3837632849

9783839432846

3839432847

1 online resource (430 pages) : illustrations (some colour); digital, PDF file(s)

Image

700

Visual Culture

Queer Studies

Early Modern History

Gender

Patriarchy

Art

Image

Cultural History

Visual Studies

Queer Theory

Art History

Fine Arts

Inglese

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Frontmatter    1 Table of Contents    5 Acknowledgements    7 Introduction    9 Chapter 1. Breastfeeding Pero    37 Chapter 2. The Caravaggesque Moment    103 Chapter 3. Poussin's and Rubens's Long Shadows    175 Chapter 4. The Literary Tradition    231 Chapter 5. Adult Breastfeeding as Cure    269 Chapter 6. Charity, Mother of Allegory    307 Chapter 7. Patriarchy and Its Discontents    351 List of

Figures    375 Table. Caravaggisti, Caravaggeschi, and Their Iconographical Choices1    387 Works Cited    393 Index of Artists    427

»Roman Charity« investigates the iconography of the breastfeeding daughter from the perspective of queer sexuality and erotic maternity. The volume explores the popularity of a topic that appealed to early modern observers for its eroticizing shock value, its ironic take on the concept of Catholic »charity«, and its implied critique of patriarchal power structures. It analyses why early modern viewers found an incestuous, adult breastfeeding scene »good to think with« and aims at expanding and queering our notions of early modern sexuality. Jutta Gisela Sperling discusses the different visual contexts in which »Roman Charity« flourished and reconstructs contemporary horizons of expectation by reference to literary sources, medical practice, and legal culture.

»Sperling's book is a useful addition to scholarly conversations in several fields and disciplines – art history and early modern gender studies in particular. Though not a text for an introductory course, it provides more advanced students and researchers with thoughtful and creative tools for analyzing the transmission of images through time as well as about the ways in which we engage the meaning and reception of those images.«

»Sperlings book is a useful addition to scholarly conversations in several fields and disciplines – art history and early modern gender studies in particular. Though not a text for an introductory course, it provides more advanced students and researchers with thoughtful and creative tools for analyzing the transmission of images through time as well as about the ways in which we engage the meaning and reception of those images.«