Images of Rape

by Diane Wolfthal

Images of Rape: The "Heroic" Tradition and Its Alternatives is the first in-depth exploration of rape as it has been portrayed in Western art from the twelfth through seventeenth centuries. Examining the full range of representations, from those that glorify rape to those that condemn it, Diane Wolfthal illuminates the complex web of attitudes towards sexual violence that existed in medieval and early modern society. Using Picture Bibles, law treatises, Justice Paintings, war prints, and the manuscripts of Christine de Pizan, among other visual documentation, Wolfthal demonstrates how this range of images still influences the contemporary debate about sexual violence.