Description
Book SynopsisThis book examines the art and ritual of flagellant confraternities in Italy from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries. Meeting regularly to beat themselves with whips, members of these confraternities concentrated on the suffering of Christ in the most extreme and committed way, and the images around them provided visual prompts of the Passion and the model suffering body. This study presents new findings related to a variety of artworks including altarpieces, banners, wall paintings, illuminated manuscripts, and paintings for the condemned, many from outside the Florence-Rome-Venice triangle.
Trade Review"Chen’s book does an impressive job of presenting a series of studies that offer a view onto the large and varied terrain of the Italian flagellant companies’ art patronage. Chen is to be commended especially for his inclusion and careful analysis of objects that art historians sometimes overlook." - Douglas N. Dow,
Renaissance Quarterly, Volume LXXIII, No. 1 "Chen’s is a rich, interdisciplinary study of the visual and material culture found in flagellant confraternities. Through detailed analyses of arts and rituals, he paints a clear picture of public flagellant processions and private devotions. ... Chen’s analyses, along with the plates, make this volume a strong contribution to art and flagellation history, as well as to religious and confraternity studies." - Nilab Ferozan,
Renaissance and Reformation, Fall 2019 "The book makes an original contribution to our knowledge of Italian flagellant confraternities and their art by offering a fresh perspective from which to examine a subject that does, indeed, deserve more attention = an innovative work of great interest that contributes significantly to the history of Italian art and confraternities in the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance." - Marco Piana,
Confraternitas, Volume 30, 2019 "[This is] an interesting volume with many little-known images in good reproduction and meaningful text passages, which promotes knowledge of the piety exercises and works of art of the penitential brothers." - Prof. Dr. habil. Peter Dinzelbacher,
Mediaevistik, 32 . 2019 (translated from German)
Table of ContentsTable of Contents List of Illustrations Colour Plates Acknowledgements Part I. Art and ritual, to 1450 1. Flagellation and Its Settings 2. Images at Entrances, and Ascesis 3. Mass 4. Comforting 5. Processions Part II. Transformations 6. Changes in Ritual before Trent 7. Changes in Imagery before Trent: Sansepolcro and Volterra 8. After Trent: Florence and Milan Epilogue: Global Flagellation Notes Bibliography Index
