Religious Narratives and Devotional Practices in Early Modern Art: New Research Orientations

Dear Colleagues,

Prior to being perceived and identified as works of art, many paintings, sculptures, and other objects were created in early modern times with the intent to perform specific devotional functions and, accordingly, were inserted within particular religious settings, where they could fulfill a variety of mystic, ritualistic, as well as apotropaic roles, establishing particular kinds of relation with their viewers. Along with their fixed structural components, images were therefore invested with a living, dynamic quality, almost as though they were breathing presences or moving talismans, open towards—or, on the contrary, strategically hidden from— the surveilling gaze of their audiences. Sometimes, images were also expected to establish close physical interactions with certain members of the communities they were created for. In this vast spectrum of religious significance and devotional practices, images could be used for contemplative purposes, while stimulating, at the same time, more active forms of emotional, psychological, and even corporeal engagement with their—constantly changing—public of viewers and believers. 

The study of the various forms of connection between specific techniques, materials, and styles and the religious values, rites, and functions performed by or attached to particular kinds of images requires a highly interdisciplinary methodological approach, so that the analysis of the tangible features of a piece may be critically set in relation to the material culture, the horizon of expectations, the religious beliefs, and the different power systems that inform the historical contexts within which those works had been created. This special issue, Religious Narratives and Devotional Practices in Early Modern Art: New Research Orientations, intends to provide a collection of essays aiming to examine—from different geographical areas and in association with an extended range of religious experiences—how the production of what we may call now “works of art” intersects with the dynamics of reception and the multilayered narratives of power in different times and places. Papers exploring postcolonial issues and gender-related studies are particularly welcomed.

Prof. Dr. Ricardo De Mambro Santos
Guest Editor

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• religious narratives—early modern art
• devotional practices
• renaissance mysticism and art
• baroque art and architecture
• postcolonialism and art
• gender identity and religion
• art and spirituality
• symbols in renaissance visual culture