Bogdan Cornea

The Matter of Violence in Baroque Painting - Visual and Material Culture, 1300-1700 Bogdan Cornea

Baroque depictions of violence are often described in art historical literature as 'over the top' and 'excessive'. Their material richness, exciting visual complexity, and the visceral corporeal engagement are often explained away as reflecting the presumed violence of early modern society. The book explores the intersection between materiality, excess, and violence in seventeenth-century paintings through a sustained interpretation of primary sources of some of the most iconic works of Baroque art.

It ultimately argues that such works are better understood as generative and transformative - of paintings as having the power to become - and their effect of beholders as unforeseen, violent, and excessive - a violence of sensation.