The Thief, the Cross and the Wheel: Pain and the Spectacle of Punishment in Medieval and Renaissance Europe

Abstract

"Christ's Crucifixion is one of the most recognized images in Western visual culture, and it has come to stand as a universal symbol of both suffering and salvation. But often overlooked in this symbolic language is the fact that ultimately the Crucifixion is a scene of capital punishment. In The Thief, the Cross and the Wheel, Mitchell Merback reconstructs the religious, legal, and historical context of the Crucifixion and of other images of public torture. The result is an account of a time when criminal justice and religion were entirely interrelated and punishment was a visual spectacle devoured by a popular audience."--BOOK JACKET.; 'A shameful place': the rise of Calvary -- The two thieves crucified: bodies, weapons and the technologies of pain -- The broken body as spectacle -- Pain and spectacle: rituals of punishment in late medieval Europe -- The wheel: symbol, image, screen -- The cross and the wheel -- Dysmas and gestas: model and anti-model -- Image and spectacle in the era of art.