Keywords: Hand Gesture, cynocephali, barking, John of Plano Carpini, Martin Waldseemüller The dog-headed cynocephali were frequently depicted with their hands raised or pointing. Hand gestures were recognised in ancient Greece and Rome as a part of universal human expression, used for persuasive and emotive discourse (Kendon, 2004, p. 17). As the Roman rhetorician, Marcus Fabius… Continue reading Cynocephali and Signs of ‘Barbarous’ Language
Witches in Sixteenth-Century Germany: The belief in witches, what they were accused of and why 'The witch trials demonstrated fear of the power of women’s sexuality. The female witch was understood to be a product of woman’s excessive carnal lust who were affiliated with fornication and orgies with the Devil. This made them more susceptible… Continue reading Halloween Compilation 2022
Keywords: Jesuits, Peter (or Petrus) Canisius, Martin Eisengrein, Judensau (‘Jewish sow’), dog-pig hybrids, Reformation Updated: 05.10.2022 The act of revelation was explored in Protestant Reformation prints to demonstrate that the Catholic Church were something more sinister than what they externally portrayed. In this way, their outward, physical appearance from their tonsured haircut to their clerical… Continue reading Dog-Pig Hybrids and the Heretical Teachings of the Jesuits during the Counter Reformation
Keywords: Jesuits, Dominicans, Martin Luther, Reformation, Order of Jesus, Counter-Reformation The Jesuits became an especial target in the Protestant polemical campaign as they became a significant and influential order of the Catholic Church, particularly during the Counter-Reformation period. While artists used various animals to mock the Catholic clergy, the dog and the wolf were popular,… Continue reading Jesuits Portrayed with Dog-Heads in Protestant Polemical Prints
Keywords: New World, cynocephali, Native Americans, Cannibalism, Lorenz Fries With the discovery of the Americas, there was a natural decline in the interest in monstrous races, as that was superseded by the interest in real marvels of the New World. However, the legacy of the monstrous races persisted to the mid-sixteenth century. After the discovery… Continue reading Imagining the New World: Representations of Cannibalistic Cynocephali in Lorenz Fries’ Uslegung der Mercarthen oder Carta Marina
Dana K Rehn 