CUAJ 2 Modern Society Would Most Likely Dis- Luther and His Followers

1 DIVINE AND DEMONIC: THE PORTRAYAL OF FEMALE POSSESSION IN COUNTER- REFORMATION ART BY MARIA OGNJANOVICH BA2 ART HISTORY STUDENT AT THE COURTAULD AND CO-FOUNDER of CUAJ 2 Modern society would most likely dis- Luther and his followers. What followed miss the possibility of demonic posses- was the systematic reform of the Cath- sion, attributing its symptoms to a med- olic Church, with the renewed canon ical or psychiatric illness rather than to being spread across the world through the devil. However, in the early modern overseas missions, as well as in the tra- period few doubted the ability for a ditional strongholds of Catholicism in Eu- demon to enter a human body. During rope.1 This exorcism in Laon, occurring the time of the Counter-Reformation, during the French Wars of Religion, was the Catholic Church used images of hailed as a miracle by the Counter-Ref- exorcism as a testimonial to the glory ormation forces, while the Protestant of Catholicism, as seen in The Miracles side labeled it a hoax. The exorcism it- of St Ignatius of Loyola by Rubens and self, while difficult to immediately find in the engraving of a possessed woman such a cluttered image, is dominated by by Jacques Callot. Whether there was the Church itself. The overbearing struc- truly an increase in demonic possessions ture reflected the reality of the time, as during this period cannot be verified, the Roman Church dictated the general but women especially were more likely positions and attitudes of all types of to be shown in the paintings of exor- ritualistic and artistic expression. cism. In this essay I will explore how female stereotypes fed the notion that women were more prone to possession, Demonic possession was a significant and how the ambiguity of divine and subject for the Catholic Church during demonic intervention is expressed in the this period because of the Post-Refor- art of the period. I will also touch upon mation controversy about the efficacy how different depictions were made for and validity of miracles. Miracles were different audiences, as well as the simi- an important propaganda tool, as they larities. verified the claim of true faith, as well as the power of Catholic belief, in a The exorcism of Nicole Aubry (fig. setting of hostility or resistance. The 1), in the French city of Laon in 1566, Protestant Church had launched an is an example of the Catholic Church’s attack on “beliefs and practices bearing response through art to the pressurised on the relations between matter and climate of the Counter-Reformation, spirit”, for example transubstantiation which was prompted by the Protestant and ritual practices.2. An example of Reformation of the sixteenth century. ritual practices was the ritual of exor- Incited by the new split in the Church, cism. Protestants protested exorcism, the Council of Trent was held, lasting as they believed that it had no basis in from 1545 to 1563, to try to reconcile scripture, and that it “emphasized the the Reformers with the Church in Rome. human power of the exorcist rather than During this time, the Catholic authorities appealing to the deity, that it was essen- addressed the new heresies of Martin tially magical and superstitious, and that 1. Alexandra Bamji, Geert H Janssen and Mary Laven, The Ashgate Research Companion To The Count- er-Reformation, 1st ed. (London: Routledge, 2016), 379. 2. Ibid, 255. 3 FIG. 1 4 its purpose was to perform a miracle in An example of this can be seen in the an age when they had ceased.”3 engraving of a possessed woman by Jacques Callot (fig. 2). It is one of forty The visual arts had the important role of engravings made for the second edition teaching and exciting Catholic viewers of a book of miracles ascribed to the with the glory of the Roman Church. shrine of Our Lady of the Annunciation Paintings and sculpture were used as in Florence between 1252 and 1613, visual cues for a largely illiterate au- named Scelta d’alcuni miracoli e grazie dience, and therefore acted as both della santissima nunziata di Firenze. It instructional devices and memory signs. was commissioned by the Servite Con- The style was characterised by rhetoric vent of Florence in 1612, and contains and drama, creating a persuasive me- eighty miraculous tales written by one dium for the Catholic Church. It created of the friars, Giovanni Angelo Lottini. a static theatricality, “adopting the dra- The engravings were made by Jacques matics, gesture and illusionistic perspec- Callot, living in Florence at the time, tive of the stage” in order to confirm and reproduced the paintings of the chi- the congregation’s teachings that the ostro grande by other artists.6 The ven- only true path to eternal salvation was eration of saints had increased in the through Catholicism.4 For Catholics, Counter-Reformation period, creating demonic possession was separated from a competitive marketplace for shrines other supernatural occurrences or mir- and their orders. The Servite Convent acles by its relatability. The subject and felt this acutely, and in order to increase its subsequent paintings not only have the reputation of the Annunciation, the a very real human dimension to them, book was created for the international but they also have a morally instructive elite market. Its first edition had fea- role.5 To the ordinary layperson, these tured far more rudimentary woodcuts, images would have been both frighten- and the decision to move to the more ing and awe-inspiring, perfectly working sophisticated medium of engraving sig- towards Catholicism’s goal of bringing naled the Convent’s wish to expand its people back into its Church. range of influence outside the city limits of Florence.7 In the engraving illustrat- Specific sects and groups, for their own ing possession, a writhing woman is particular doctrine or agenda, com- pinned down to a bed by four members missioned religious paintings, and in of her family. Her eyes roll back in her the Counter-Reformation period, these head while above her three small de- paintings were used to transmit the mons fly away. In the upper left corner, identity and reputation of the particular an image of the Annunciation is shown, convent or shrine past its normal limits. suggesting that the afflicted woman is 3. Brian P. Levack, The Devil Within: Possession And Exorcism In The Christian West (New Hav- en, CT: Yale University Press, 2013), 21. 4. Gauvin Alexander Bailey, Baroque And Rococo, 1st ed. (London: Phaidon, 2012), 4. 5. Levack, The Devil Within, 2. 6. Sara F. Matthews‐Grieco, “Media, Memory And The Miracoli Della SS. Annunziata”, Word & Image 25, no. 3 (2009): 272-292, doi:10.1080/02666280802489970, 281. 7. Ibid, 285. 5 FIG. 2 FIG. 3 fi nally freed from her torment through the devils? Is it only us, the chosen audi- the intercession of this miraculous im- ence, or can the fi gures in the scene see age. The domestic setting increases the them as well? These demons are essen- pathos of the scene, and also makes the tially unportrayable due to their exis- intercession of the Virgin Mary more tence being rooted in belief, and hence, wondrous, as the image demonstrates if only the viewer can see them, the that her reach is not limited to within the viewer becomes a voyeur, a one-sided walls of her shrine. The “propagandist gaze at the suffering of the demoniac. emotionalism” of this piece was used to While artists like Callot tried to show the further spread the miracles of the An- physical manifestation of wrestling with nunciata, in order to cement the reputa- one’s faith in the writhing ecstasy of the tion and future of the Order.8 female demoniac, this style was similar to depictions of divine ecstasy, which Images such as this of exorcism, that also represents an inner expression of include the shadowy fi gures of escap- faith outwardly.9 This showcases the ing demons, raise the question of sight thin line between the portrayals of divin- and viewership. Who exactly can see ity and demonic possession. Both share 8. Willibald Sauerländer, The Catholic Rubens: Saints And Martyrs, 1st ed. (Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute, 2014), 79. 9. Bamji, Janssen and Laven, The Ashgate Research Companion To The Counter-Reformation, 373. 6 similar propensities, including trances, of interior vision”, although her imagi- ecstasies, and visions, and saints, espe- nation was not always believed.12 Her cially female ones, were often depicted superiors and confessors believed that in flights of divine ecstasy, as for exam- her visions, because of their intensity, ple St Teresa of Jesus.10 St Teresa was a were a product of the devil rather than Spanish Carmelite reformer and mystic, God - “they told me, as they often did, living in the sixteenth century, and was that I was being deceived by the devil known for her intense visions, which and that it was all the work of my imag- she wrote about extensively. What ination.”13 This possible lack of faith characterized her experiences was her showcases the potential risks that were assertion that her heightened vision was believed to be associated with visions, linked with a loss of bodily control. and their supposed ability to lead one astray. The control of bodily senses was This can be seen in the engraving St key to self-awareness and preserva- Teresa’s Vision of the Forty Jesuit Mar- tion.14 tyrs, by Francois Spierre, ca. 1660 (fig. 3). The saint’s twisted body and turned head lean back towards the riotous cha- According to Catholic doctrine, posses- os of the violence behind her.

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