Monsters II: Down to the Skin: Images of Flaying in the Middle Ages
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Monsters: The Experimental Association for the Research of Cryptozoology through Scholarly Theory and Practical Application (MEARCSTAPA)
Organizer Name
Asa Simon Mittman, Larissa Tracy
Organizer Affiliation
California State Univ.-Chico, Longwood Univ.
Presider Name
Larissa Tracy
Paper Title 1
A Window for the Pain: Surface, Interiority, and Christ’s Flagellated Skin in Late Medieval Sculpture
Presenter 1 Name
Peter Dent
Presenter 1 Affiliation
Univ. of Bristol
Paper Title 2
Getting under Your Skin: The Monstrous Subdermal
Presenter 2 Name
Derek Newman-Stille
Presenter 2 Affiliation
Trent Univ.
Paper Title 3
The Flaying of Saint Bartholomew and the Rhetoric of the Flesh in the Belles Heures of the Duke of Berry
Presenter 3 Name
Sherry C. M. Lindquist
Presenter 3 Affiliation
Western Illinois Univ.
Paper Title 4
“Lo, his flessh al be beflapped that fat is”: From Flagellation to Flaying in the English Cycle Passion Plays
Presenter 4 Name
Valerie Gramling
Presenter 4 Affiliation
Univ. of Massachusetts-Amherst
Start Date
10-5-2013 3:30 PM
Session Location
Schneider 1360
Description
From images of Saint Bartholomew holding his skin in his arms, to scenes of demons flaying the damned within the mouth of hell, to grisly execution in Havelok the Dane, to laws that prescribed it as a punishment for treason, this session explores the gruesome, even monstrous, practice of skin removal—flaying—in the Middle Ages. This session proposes to examine the widely diverse examples of this grisly practice, and explore the layered responses to skin-removal in art, history, literature, manuscript studies and law. How common was this punishment in practice? How does art reflect spiritual response? How is flaying, in any form, used to further political or religious goals? The papers in this session will literally get beneath the skin of medieval sensibilities regarding punishment and sacrifice in a nuanced discussion of medieval flaying.
Asa S. Mittman
Monsters II: Down to the Skin: Images of Flaying in the Middle Ages
Schneider 1360
From images of Saint Bartholomew holding his skin in his arms, to scenes of demons flaying the damned within the mouth of hell, to grisly execution in Havelok the Dane, to laws that prescribed it as a punishment for treason, this session explores the gruesome, even monstrous, practice of skin removal—flaying—in the Middle Ages. This session proposes to examine the widely diverse examples of this grisly practice, and explore the layered responses to skin-removal in art, history, literature, manuscript studies and law. How common was this punishment in practice? How does art reflect spiritual response? How is flaying, in any form, used to further political or religious goals? The papers in this session will literally get beneath the skin of medieval sensibilities regarding punishment and sacrifice in a nuanced discussion of medieval flaying.
Asa S. Mittman