Demonic Bodies Under Construction
Location
King Building 321
Document Type
Presentation
Start Date
4-29-2016 1:30 PM
End Date
4-29-2016 2:30 PM
Abstract
Demons are a common presence in European art of many mediums, their characters often easily read through their forms. How these forms are constructed, however, is not as easily deduced. This paper seeks to explore, through sustained engagement with German engraver and printer Martin Schongauer’s late 15th-century engraving The Temptation of Saint Anthony, the varying themes that may have developed a standardized iconography of demons. Exploration of themes, including religious binaries and their inversion, Christian dogma, physiognomy, and concepts of the imagination, shed light on how these forms are constructed by Schongauer and how his audiences may have interpreted them.
Recommended Citation
Finkelman, Miriam, "Demonic Bodies Under Construction" (04/29/16). Senior Symposium. 17.
https://digitalcommons.oberlin.edu/seniorsymp/2016/presentations/17
Major
Art History
Advisor(s)
Erik Inglis, Art History
Project Mentor(s)
Erik Inglis, Art History
April 2016
Demonic Bodies Under Construction
King Building 321
Demons are a common presence in European art of many mediums, their characters often easily read through their forms. How these forms are constructed, however, is not as easily deduced. This paper seeks to explore, through sustained engagement with German engraver and printer Martin Schongauer’s late 15th-century engraving The Temptation of Saint Anthony, the varying themes that may have developed a standardized iconography of demons. Exploration of themes, including religious binaries and their inversion, Christian dogma, physiognomy, and concepts of the imagination, shed light on how these forms are constructed by Schongauer and how his audiences may have interpreted them.
Notes
Session I, Panel 1 - Plagued By Demons: Representing Evil in Rhetoric, Engravings, and Literature
Moderator: Patrick O'Connor, Associate Professor of Hispanic Studies and Comparative Literature