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Preachers, Pyres and Pants: A History of Censoring, Banning or Destroying Paintings, 1300-1600

As recent events have shown, works of art, like Michelangelo’s David, can get swept up in the present-day culture wars. Rather than this being a modern problem, this has its roots in historic attitudes about the overwhelming sensual power of the visual arts. Among the questions we will explore: What is an iconoclast? Why do Italian medieval paintings have scratches on them? What was the Bonfire of the Vanities, and what did it have to do with Botticelli? What was the matter with the Sistine Chapel? Why is Daniele da Volterra nicknamed “the Pantsmaker?” Why was Caravaggio the most rejected painter in 17th-century Rome? Why are all Dutch church interiors whitewashed? These and many other mysteries of the history of painting problems will be explored in an illustrated lecture touching on many major masters and their troublesome works.

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