Sacred Senses: Ears in Italian Religious Imagery between the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance

Authors

• Marta Battisti, Villa I Tatti, The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance StudiesFollow

Abstract

This article examines depictions of ears and auditory perception in Italian religious imagery of the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, focusing on three key iconographic motifs: the revelation, obstruction, and anointing of the ears. Drawing on examples from the fourteenth to the sixteenth century, it explores a period in which religious and artistic theories converge around the theme of listening. By analyzing Christian reflection on the ear, its spiritual connotations, and its visual interpretation by Italian artists, the study challenges earlier art historical claims about the ear’s supposed insignificance and offers new methodological insights for the study of the iconography of sacred auditory perception. In doing so, it highlights how attention to often-neglected details, such as ears, can enrich iconographic analysis and moves beyond the predominantly allegorical interpretive frameworks that have long shaped the study of the senses, hearing included, in art history.

Recommended Citation

Battisti, Marta () "Sacred Senses: Ears in Italian Religious Imagery between the Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance," Studies in Iconography: Vol. 47, Article 7.
Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/studies_in_iconography/vol47/iss1/7