Dance - Head - Blood

Salome and Narrative Space in Medieval and Renaissance Art

The lecture revisits the iconography of the death of John the Baptist according to Mark 6:14-29 and Matthew 14:1-12. The gospels demonstrate an intense temporal plot and a complex spatial structure with Salome as the ambivalent protagonist. The head is demanded, the head is decapitated, the head is posed on a platter, and the head is handed over on the platter. During this swift sequence of actions (cum festinatione) the text suggests convoluted situations both indoors and outdoors. Medieval and renaissance artists translated this narrative labyrinth with consideration of the visual clarity of the story, the emotional expression or Pathosformeln of the dramatis personae, and the moral message of the Prodromos’ martyrdom.

In my lecture I will discuss and compare the different visual strategies of ‘framing’ in medieval and early modern affreschi and predellae, such as contamination, overlap, inversion, corner, leverage, cut, mise-en-abîme and dripping. I will show how the pictorial solutions unfold, sustain, suppress, and emphasise symbolic archetypes regarding, among others, the female court dance, mimetic violence, incest, and the sacrificial blood taboo. By integrating the hermeneutics of exegesis and semiotics, of anthropology and iconology, my exposé aims to pay tribute to the versatility of the Humanities and the resilience of the Bildwissenschaften, both celebrated so generously by the Dahlem Humanities Center.

Vortrag in englischer Sprache.

Wir bitten um Anmeldung bis zum 10. Januar.