Narratives of Truth: Painting the Past in post-Tridentine Rome

Description

Post-Reformation culture struggled to navigate an era of competing truths and conflicting stories, during a time of religious controversy in the long aftermath of Luther's secession from the Church of Rome and the Gatholic response in the Council of Trent (1545-1563). Since history had rapidly become the battlefield for the quest of the true Christian tradition, Catholic and Protestant scholars were confronted with the problem of the truth-value of history and historical narration. Art, with its ability to provide a vivid depiction of past facts and events and convey a sense of authenticity, emerged as a powerful voice in the intellectual debate of the time on historical truth and its narrative representation. This paper explores how painting in post-Tridentine Rome developed specific strategies of visual rhetoric to construct convincing historical narratives and negotiate ideas of truth, ultimately shaping peoples beliefs.

Period	26 Apr 2021
Held at	FACULTY OF ARTS