Lecture and Information Session on Zoom, 9 Dec 2021, 6:30-7:15 pm

香港嶺南大學視覺研究系策展與藝術史文學碩士課程說明會及線上講座

12月9日下午6時30分至7時30分 （以英語進行）

Witches and Demonic Creatures in Renaissance Art 文藝復興藝術中的巫婆與魔鬼

by Prof. Alessandra DI CROCE

Abstract
Beliefs in witchcraft and fear of the evil powers of witches, and the consequent brutal reaction of witch-hunt, are important phenomena of pre-modern European culture. Through a selection of artworks from the 15th and 16th centuries, this talk analyzes how images of witches and demonic creatures embodied and, in turn, contributed to nurture, notions of heresy and apostasy, social and religious rebellions, gender inequality and dominance. By looking at witchcraft imagery, terrifying but also bizarrely entertaining, we will explore different attitudes and beliefs towards witches and the threat they posed to the social and cultural status quo. More broadly, we will use these fascinating visual documents to get a glimpse of the mental world of Renaissance Europe.

Speaker Biography
Prof. Alessandra Di Croce teaches Western Art History in the Department of Visual Studies at Lingnan University. She was trained as an art historian at La Sapienza University in Rome and Columbia University in New York, where she earned her Ph.D. She specializes in European art from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century with a major focus on Italian art. Her research focuses on early-modern visual and material culture, investigating how artifacts and art objects can help addressing historical questions regarding ideology, power, cultural and religious identity. She has published in Italian journals and, more recently, in the edited volume Re-Thinking, re-Making, re-Living Christian Origins (Rome 2018). She is currently working on a book entitled Fragments of Truth. Evidence and Imagination in post-Tridentine Representation of Christian Antiquity.