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Dr. Péter Bokody: Political Control and Sexual Violence in Italian Painting Before 1500

Sexual violence equally belongs to the economy of war and peace. Mass outbursts of rape often accompany military conflicts, whereas various forms of sexual coercion (licit or illicit) are omnipresent in everyday life settings. In this paper I propose to compare and contrast these two understandings of violence, associated with the absence and prevalence of political control. Examining a series of images from 14th and 15th century Italian painting, I suggest that the visual language of wartime rape differed significantly from the representations of peacetime rape. Although in both instance the lack of consent was an important component, the regulatory framework of political structures prevented the full escalation of violence. In this respect, the existence of political structures was to some extent justified through the protection against the threat of heterosexual violence. I intend to examine this gendered foundation of order also in political thought, in order to demonstrate its fundamental significance.