Sacrima Publication Series

The SACRIMA project is a series of three publications edited by Dr. Chiara Franceschini. It studies the normativity of sacred images in early modern Europe and beyond. It looks afresh at relations between art, image, cult and law through a new investigation of both visual and textual materials to focus on the notion of the ‘visual norm’ and the agency of images in an era of religious conflicts and reform.

The first volume Sacred Images and Normativity: Contested Forms in Early Modern Art provides a first exploration of image normativity by means of a series of case studies that focus in different ways on the intersections between the limits of the sacred image and the power of art between 1450 and 1650. In total the book includes 14 different contributions that discuss the status of images and objects in trials; contested portraits, objects and iconographies; the limits to representation of suffering; the tensions between technology and art; the significance of copies and adaptions that establish as well as contest visual norms from Europe and beyond.

In this volume consist of many images of the early modern period. On every topic chapter page Lungomare responds to these images with a creative concept that suggest visually interventions to these images examined in the research. Images and parts of them are manipulated in a striking manner using a graphic layers such as repetition, juxtaposition and drawing lines. These techniques highlight what the content of Sacrima is about, putting the visual content in focus, which means that the research can continue to develop in a future-oriented manner.

The following two volumes; Holy Children and Liminality in Early Modern Art (Volume 2), edited by Chiara Franceschini and Cloe Cavero de Carondelet and Madonne, Reframing Images of Mary in Early Modern Spaces (Volume 3), edited by Chiara Franceschini and Erin Graffin will be produced in the upcoming years.