Distinctive Features Attributed to an Infidel: Political Propaganda and Iconography in the Sixteenth Century

• In Event: Changing the Enemy, Visualizing the Other: Studies about Otherness in Early Modern Europe II

Abstract

After the fall of Constantinople the political rhetoric between the Venetian Republic and the Ottoman Empire sharpened, and culminated with the War of Cyprus. In these times of crisis, Antonio Torquato wrote De eversion Europae Prognosticon in 1534. He claimed that the Venetians would succumb to Turkish assault. But Christ would at last reconcile the Christians; all Europe was going to respond in a vast crusade overseas. The aim of this paper is to comment on the influence of the political propaganda on the iconography of the 16th century painting in Venice, in particular how two Venetian Renaissance painters Girolamo and Francesco da Santa Croce responded to those impulses. We will deal with representations of infidels on paintings with following iconographic themes from the Santa Croce workshop: Adoration of the Magi, the Crucifixion, the Flagellation of Christ and the martyrdom of Christian saints.

Author

• Ivana Čapeta Rakić, University of Split