5.2.1. VIOLENCE THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH RELIGION

GLORIFYING BRUTALITY PRECEDES THOSE WARS

Medieval painting can be violent but it does not linger over sadistic details.

     Martyrdom of Saint Denis (detail) by Henri Bellechose, toward 1400 /  zoom

A century later:

   

Detail of ceramic at the Renaissance Museum / Claude Abron

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As well:

• Evoking antiquity makes this glacial work still more nightmarish: 

 

The Massacres of the Triumvirs by Antoine Caron, 1566 / zoom 

 

• A combat that has nothing to do with the subject:

Claude Abron

• A chronicler casually remarks there were "many killed and wounded..." during the tournament to celebrate the birth of a prince (in 1518).

-- François Ier by Emmanuel Bourassin, 1997, p.75

• Nobles wear coats of mail under their doublets, even at the Louvre. 

-- Letter of Henri IV, 1573

• A platter shows a beheading:

Galerie Franck Baptiste

7 quai Voltaire, Paris 7e

The Wars of Religion justify and worsen violence,

 but do not cause it.

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Next: 

5.2.2.

The "season" of Protestant massacre