Mitchell B. Merback investigates the role of tragic recognition as a motif and metatheme in Christian art before 1600. His scholarship delves into the representation of pain and the spectacle of punishment across medieval and Renaissance Europe, examining the visual culture surrounding pilgrimage and pogroms. Merback analyzes how these themes manifest in artistic works, offering profound insights into the intersections of art, memory, and violence. His work provides a compelling lens through which to view historical art, emphasizing its symbolic and emotional dimensions.
Pain and the Spectacle of Punishment in Medieval and Renaissance Europe
When spectators in the Middle Ages examined images of Christ's crucifixion on Mount Calvary, did they ever consider them as representations of capital punishment? This book traces out the extraordinary connections between religious devotion, bodily pain, criminal justice and judicial spectatorship to explain why this was so.