1.

Record Nr.

UNISA996308752503316

Autore

Sperling Jutta Gisela

Titolo

Roman charity : queer lactations in early modern visual culture / / Jutta Gisela Sperling

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Bielefeld, Germany : , : Transcript Verlag, , [2016]

©2016

ISBN

3-8376-3284-9

3-8394-3284-7

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

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

Collana

Image ; 87

Disciplina

700

Soggetti

Sex - Social aspects

Sex (Psychology)

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

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

Sommario/riassunto

»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.«  Peter Carlson, Comitatus, 48 (2017)