As its title attests, Picturing Death 1200–1600 recognizes a persistent fascination with the inevitability of mortality—both as a subject of artistic representation and a source of anxious visualization—in the Christian communities of Western Europe, during the centuries spanning the Gothic and Renaissance periods. In their introduction, editors Stephen Perkinson and Noa Turel identify “a remarkable efflorescence of depictions of death” (2) throughout this four-hundred-year timeframe and acknowledge various motives for the thriving interest, as explored in both seminal studies and recent scholarship. These include the ravages inflicted by war, famine, and plague, as well as the influence of theological developments, most notably the concept of purgatory.
Perkinson and Turel do not set out to name a specific source or explanation for the temporal parameters of their project, acknowledging that “anxieties around death and dying are to a significant degree a historical constant” and that such an endeavor “could easily collapse under its own chronological weight” (3). Rather, they are interested in the diverse ways that death generated an industry of “Salvation-driven imagery” (6), and how that might be used to reconsider the taxonomies that traditionally define the periods of medieval and Renaissance art in regions across Western Europe. In this way, the notion of mortality—defined by the certainties of life and death, but unsettled by the tenuous boundaries between them, such as the opportunity for salvation afforded through purgatory—serves as a metaphor for their broader reassessment of the long-established boundary points used to outline the Gothic and Renaissance periods. Thus, Picturing Death 1200–1600 proposes human mortality as a through line connecting these traditionally isolated periods.
Perkinson and Turel are clear and concise with their framework and objectives in the anthology's introduction, and the authors of the volume's sixteen essays are similarly succinct. Four sections loosely organize the studies by their central themes related to function and meaning, which are apparent across artistic media, geographical regions, and in both devotional and secular contexts. Part 1, “Housing the Dead,” concerns funerary monuments, an essential topic for the subject of this volume. Tombs and effigies were common points of contact between the living and the deceased, suggesting tense boundaries between these disparate states. Authors Robert Marcoux and Xavier Dectot focus on sculpted structures and representations of the deceased, while Henrike Christiane Lange and Judith Steinhoff incorporate paintings and Katherine M. Boivin extends the discussion to architectural spaces, specifically two-story charnel houses. In part 2, “Mortal Anxieties and Living Paradoxes,” the essays further explore the interaction between the living and the dead, conveying a sense of dialogue between them. For example, portrait sculptures in Naumberg Cathedral (representing the donors who endowed the building two centuries earlier) engage with the faithful who behold them and move before them, as discussed by Brigit G. Ferguson; Jessica Barker explains that figures of the deceased ostensibly spoke to the visitors of their tombs in English chapel settings. Part 3, “The Macabre, Instrumentalized,” centers on memento mori and the emotional impact of horrifying images. The associated essays discuss a range of objects on this theme, including manuscripts and printed editions—such as the anatomical treatise designed by Guido da Vigevano for King Phillip VI of France (discussed by Peter Bovenmyer) and the Dance of Death, first printed by Guy Marchant in 1485 (Maja Dujakovic)—as well as sculpted objects, ranging from large-scale transi tombs in England and France (Noa Turel) to luxury, hand-held ivories (Stephen Perkinson). Finally, part 4, “Departure and Persistence,” presents the changes that developed in images of death by the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Conflict between Catholics and Protestants and the burgeoning influence of the Jesuits likely informed these developments, as explained in essays by Mary V. Silcox and Alison C. Fleming. Thus, the tension and volatility of the post-Tridentine era marks a natural end point for the subject of this volume.
The relative brevity of the essays makes them straightforward and easy to read, and thus of value to students (including graduates and advanced undergraduates) as well as specialists of the related fields. While interesting and useful on their own, the essays are best read in dialogue with one another; together, their insights shape a richer understanding of the broad cultural milieu. Some gaps are evident, however, as consideration is limited to Christian ideology in communities of Western Europe, primarily north of the Alps. These focused parameters limit the topics covered in the essays and should be kept in mind, especially when used for teaching.
