Widowhood and Visual Culture in Early Modern Europe

Whereas recent studies of early modern widowhood by social economic and cultural historians have called attention to the often ambiguous yet also often empowering experience and position of widows within society Widowhood and Visual Culture in Early Modern Europe is the first book to consider the distinct and important relationship between ritual and representation. The fifteen new interdisciplinary essays assembled here read widowhood as a catalyst for the production of a significant body of visual material-representations of for and by widows whether through traditional media such as painting sculpture and architecture or through the so-called 'minor arts ' including popular print culture medals religious and secular furnishings and ornament costume and gift objects in early modern Austria England France Germany Italy and Spain. Arranged thematically this unique collection allows the reader to recognize and appreciate the complexity and contradiction iconicity and mutability and timelessness and timeliness of widowhood and representation.