Research Catalog

Abject eroticism in northern Renaissance art : the witches and femmes fatales of Hans Baldung Grien

Title
Abject eroticism in northern Renaissance art : the witches and femmes fatales of Hans Baldung Grien / Yvonne Owens.
Author
Owens, Yvonne, 1952-
Publication
  • London, UK ; New York, NY : Bloomsbury Visual Arts, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2020.
  • ©2020

Items in the Library & Off-site

Filter by

1 Item

StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
TextUse in library JQE 21-154Schwarzman Building - Art & Architecture Room 300

Details

Description
xiii, 294 pages : illustrations; 24 cm
Summary
"Hans Baldung Grien, the most famous apprentice and close friend of German artist Albrecht Durer, was known for his unique and highly eroticised images of witches. In paintings and woodcut prints, he gave powerful visual expression to late medieval tropes and stereotypes, such as the poison maiden, venomous virgin, the Fall of Man, 'death and the maiden' and other motifs and eschatological themes, which mingled abject and erotic qualities in the female body. Yvonne Owens reads these images against the humanist intellectual milieu of Renaissance Germany, showing how classical and medieval medicine and natural philosophy interpreted female anatomy as toxic, defective and dangerously beguiling. She reveals how Hans Baldung exploited this radical polarity to create moralising and titillating portrayals of how monstrous female sexuality victimised men and brought them low. Furthermore, these images issued from - and contributed to - the contemporary understanding of witchcraft as a heresy that stemmed from natural 'feminine defect,' a concept derived from Aristotle. Offering new and provocative interpretations of Hans Baldung's iconic witchcraft imagery, this book will be essential for historians of art, culture and gender relations in the late medieval and early modern periods"--
Subject
  • Baldung, Hans, -1545 > Criticism and interpretation
  • Baldung, Hans, -1545
  • Witches in art
  • Femmes fatales in art
  • Women > Folklore
  • Renaissance > Europe, Northern
  • Renaissance
  • Northern Europe
Genre/Form
Criticism, interpretation, etc.
Note
  • Based on the author's thesis (Ph.D.)--University College, London, 2019, under the title: Abject eroticism and toxic femininity in Hans Baldung Grien.
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references and index.
Contents
Foreword / by Joseph Leo Koerner -- Introduction: Baldung's polluted witches, poison maids, basilisks and crones -- The abject erotic feminine in Hans Baldung Grien -- The world of Baldung's 1510 Witches' Sabbath -- Baldung's 'Jewish' witches -- Baldung and the witch doctors -- Blood, visions, witch women and saints -- Baldung and the morality of vision -- Classical reception, toxic femininity and Hippomanes in The Bewitched Groom -- Humanist humour in Baldung -- Erudite obscenities and pious pornography -- Conclusion.
Call Number
JQE 21-154
ISBN
  • 9781784537296
  • 1784537292
  • 9781350190504 (canceled/invalid)
  • 9781350190566 (canceled/invalid)
LCCN
2020035144
OCLC
1183398233
Author
Owens, Yvonne, 1952- author.
Title
Abject eroticism in northern Renaissance art : the witches and femmes fatales of Hans Baldung Grien / Yvonne Owens.
Publisher
London, UK ; New York, NY : Bloomsbury Visual Arts, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2020.
Copyright Date
©2020
Type of Content
text
Type of Medium
unmediated
Type of Carrier
volume
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Other Form:
Online version: Owens, Yvonne, 1952- Abject eroticism in northern Renaissance art London ; New York : Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2020 9781350190504 (DLC) 2020035145
Research Call Number
JQE 21-154
View in Legacy Catalog