Art and Dis-illusion in the Long Sixteenth Century

Dramatic changes during the Reformation era in Northern Europe, such as witchcraft and new global discoveries, are examined through visual culture, both prints and paintings. Whereas entire libraries discuss the religious and political history of the sixteenth century in Northern Europe, focused on the Reformation and the rise of nation-states, Larry Silver uniquely traces the dramatic, even traumatic changes of the Reformation era discernible in the visual arts, especially paintings and the new medium of prints. Among the subjects and themes he explores are the destruction of church images, witchcraft, reactions to new voyages of exploration, and issues of vision itself in an age when moral codes and the nature of sin and death were being re-examined.