Discuss how depictions of the naked body in the Christian Catholic visual production articulate
important religious beliefs and socio-cultural values through the following three themes:
1. Sexuality and motherhood juxtaposed through Eve and Mary.
2. Sacrifice (Christ, and potentially also Mary and the martyrs).
3. Salvation and damnation (Last Judgment).
Explore these three themes with in-depth visual analysis of one primary relevant image per topic
and in addition introduce one secondary image per topic for supplemental and complementary
visual analysis that will allow you to better contextualize the main image you explore. When/if
appropriate, draw connections between the visual examples of your three different themes.
In total you have to discuss at least 6 images: 3 primary and 3 secondary ones, a pair of each for
every one of the three themes you explore.
Limit yourself to the Catholic tradition from roughly the 11th-17th centuries.
The pictures should properly integrated into your essay and copy-pasted at the end of your text with appropriate captions, as discussed in the guidelines. Images don’t count towards the page limit.
Write a reflection paragraph at the end of the essay: mention the feedback below and what was done to improve the performance
in the current assignment. There is no word-count requirement for the reflection paragraph. The reflection paragraph doesn’t count
towards the page limit of this assignment.
discuss all required images with substantial visual analysis in relation to the gender concepts you want to explore,
and choose supplementary material strategically, in support of the primary focus.
pay closer attention to the structure of the essay: a different order of your material would have given more clarity and focus to the discourse.
– In all these cases you need to explain how specific visual details of the material articulate specific gender ideas (e.g. dress code, poses, actions, attributes, expressions, interrelation of figures, etc.). Simply stating what ideas the statues project is not enough, you have to show how they do it through their visual details.
– finally, pay closer attention to your captions and include only relevant information.
