Overview

In Visual Cultures of Death in Central Europe, Aleksandra Koutny-Jones explores the emergence of a remarkable cultural preoccupation with death in Poland-Lithuania (1569-1795). Examining why such interests resonated so strongly in the Baroque art of this Commonwealth, she argues that the printing revolution, the impact of the Counter-Reformation, and multiple afflictions suffered by Poland-Lithuania all contributed to a deep cultural concern with mortality. Introducing readers to a range of art, architecture and material culture, this study considers various visual evocations of death including 'Dance of Death' imagery, funerary decorations, coffin portraiture, tomb chapels and religious landscapes. These, Koutny-Jones argues, engaged with wider European cultures of contemplation and commemoration, while also being critically adapted to the specific context of Poland-Lithuania.

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..her book is the first comprehensive overview of many of the varied aspects of what [the author] calls 'visual cultures of death'. [...] Koutny-Jones [...] points to unique or unfamiliar iconographical features of monuments or images that previously have been unduly ignored or neglected. [...] Her well informed study takes up the argument for considering alternatives to earlier models of cultural innovation and diffusion. Professor Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann, Princeton University, in Print Quarterly, XXXIV, 2017, 1

..her book is the first comprehensive overview of many of the varied aspects of what [the author] calls 'visual cultures of death'. [...] Koutny-Jones [...] points to unique or unfamiliar iconographical features of monuments or images that previously have been unduly ignored or neglected. [...] Her well informed study takes up the argument for considering alternatives to earlier models of cultural innovation and diffusion. Professor Thomas DaCosta Kaufmann, Princeton University, in Print Quarterly, XXXIV, 2017, 1 As the author states, the goal of this monograph is to 'synthesise a diverse body of artistic material previously omitted from international scholarship' (p. 13). It delivers handsomely on that promise. Making this material available to the English-speaking reader for the first time in such a comprehensive format, K.-J.'s study will appeal to historians of Polish-Lithuanian art and visual culture, scholars of East Central Europe and specialists in death studies. Clear and informative, the book has the potential to become a standard English-language reference on the subject. Tomasz Grusiecki, in: Zeitschrift fur Ostmitteleuropa-Forschung, 66 (2017).

Author Information

Aleksandra Koutny-Jones, Ph.D. (2007), University of Cambridge, is an art historian of early modern Central Europe. She has published on artistic and cultural transmission within Europe, dealing especially with macabre art, orientalising portraiture, and the impact of the printed image.

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