LECTURE, THE MURRAY SEMINARS AT BIRBECK

FAITH, RACE AND THE ‘OTHER’ IN NORTH ITALIAN SCULPTURE, C.1480-1700

DR. ANDREW HORN, ASSOCIATE LECTURER, SCHOOL OF ART HISTORY, UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREWS

TUESDAY, 6 FEBRUARY 2024 12:00 - 13:30 GMT

IN-PERSON (BIRKBECK, SCHOOL OF HISTORICAL STUDIES) & ONLINE

Northwest Italy in the early modern period witnessed a flourishing of religious sculptural ensembles, rendered in polychrome terracotta and wood, representing scenes from Christ’s Passion and death. Works of this genre range from intimate scenes of the Deposition and Lamentation above altars in churches, to series of elaborate multimedial chapels situated on the ‘Sacri Monti’, pilgrimage sites at the foot of the Italian Alps. In addition to the main protagonists, the dramatic cast of these ensembles often feature characters whose skin colour, costume or physical characteristics identify as non-European, non-Christian or in some way set apart from European Christian society of the time. Examining a selection of these artworks in relation to devotional treatises, religious plays and historical records of public policy from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, this paper considers what the representation of these outsiders––these ‘others’––may reveal about faith and society in premodern Europe. What roles do such figures serve within the drama of Christian salvation history?

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