A Complex Delight: The Secularization of the Breast, 1350-1750

by Margaret R. Miles, Vanessa Lyon (Primary Contributor)

Looking at painting and sculpture from the fourteenth through the eighteenth centuries, this provocative work focuses on the symbolism of the female breast to open a dazzling interpretive view of Western European history over four centuries. Margaret R. Miles finds that while in 1350 the Virgin's bare breast represented nourishment and loving care―God's provision for the Christian―by 1750, artistic representations of the breast were either erotic or medical. The breast had lost its meaning as a religious symbol. But how did the breast, and nakedness more generally, lose the ability to represent human bodies as site and symbol of religious subjectivity and commitment? To explore this phenomenon, Miles engages in a wide-ranging investigation of the social, cultural, and religious circumstances within which a religious symbol came to be thoroughly "mastered" by erotic and medical meanings. What emerges is a nuanced understanding of the location of power in early modern Western Europe, of how the lives of women changed over this period, of how art reveals and helps to construct religious meaning, and of how modern Christianity's attitude toward bodies was shaped.

Genres: History, Art

196 pages, Hardcover

First published December 8, 2007

Reviews

[Olivia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fascinating concept for a book, but the treatment was somewhat odd...The book takes a highly academic tone and format but doesn't live up to this prospect in its analysis. Its overall brevity, broad focus, speculative reasoning and modern expectations (as opposed to meeting the medieval subjects on their own grounds) leave the reader unsatisfied, if intrigued and energized to further explore the topic.

[Roland Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of fun and a compelling argument. See my full review here: http://andthewordsbecamebooks.wordpre...