ARTH 588
The Scene of Decapitation in European Art Spring 2025
Division I

From Goliath to Medusa, from Judith to Salome, from the invention of the guillotine to the mythology of the executioner under “Oriental despotism,” the “scene” of decapitation has long stood as a central focus of European art and letters. This course examines that scene as an artistic, psychological, and intellectual problematic across painting, sculpture, and other media, from the late-middle ages to the end of the nineteenth century. Although part and parcel of the larger spectacle of juridical punishment, the scene of decapitation arguably constitutes its own series, and for this reason has attracted numerous artists and a prestigious literature. Artists include Caravaggio, Artemisia Gentileschi, Théodore Géricault, Gustave Moreau, Henri Regnault, and numerous others. Interdisciplinary readings as well as a large body of art historical literature. Weekly readings, discussion, oral presentation, and research paper on a relevant topic from 1300 to 1900.