"Visual Spectacularism and Iconoclastic Justice in Late Medieval and Early Modern Europe" more

A key strategy of late medieval and early modern criminal prosecution in Europe was the systematic objectification of the criminal body. This aim is no better illustrated than by the use of effigies—recorded from the thirteenth century—to stand in for the convicted when physical presence was not possible. In situations such as criminal escape, premature death, or inconclusive identification, artists were hired to create a free-standing, portable effigy of the missing criminal-subject, which was tried, tormented and executed before crowds of witnesses. If the image was punished properly, then justice was served and the populace assuaged. That is, the image-substitute for the criminal body attained the same efficacy as “the real thing” in spectacles of punishment. This essay examines the punishment of effigies as acts of judicially-sanctioned iconoclasm in late medieval and early modern Europe, and seeks to theorize the visual spectacularism of the image-execution as a means of creating an image of the community.