Representing victimhood : an exploration of strategies for representing victimhood and inflicted terror in the works of Jacques Callot (c.1592-1635), Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) and Honoré Daumier (1808-1879)

Konstantelos, E

Abstract

The present research deals mainly with the terror inflicted by the military and with the fact and concept of victimhood, as presented by the artists Jacques Callot (c. 1592 - 1635) (in the Large Miseries and Misfortunes of War, 1633, for example), Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (1746 -1828) (in his series of etchings The Disasters of War), and Honoré Daumier (1808-1879) (in his work dealing with the nineteenth-century sociopolitical revolutions and wars such as the Crimean war 1853-1856 and the Franco-Prussian war 1870-1871).
These artists recorded and commented upon issues of human rights embedded in the events of their time. They explored visually the multifaceted relationship between victim and victimiser within specific historical contexts. Callot represented victimhood and militaristic terror as an objective truth both thematically and stylistically. Goya on the other hand reached into the gritty realities of war and inflicted terror, imaginary or real, and commented on the consequent violence and distortions of identity that victim and victimiser endure. Daumier spares his viewers the violence and brutality of war and depicts instead its residual effects and consequences on the victims, in a way that somehow invites the viewer to share responsibility.
The present thesis explores the way each artist comments on history, gives propaganda a value, and, thus, how they influenced the public opinion. It endeavours to establish the way these artists organized, explained, and presented their understanding of depicted events to the viewer. Certainly, the aforementioned artists have inspired the visual strategies of later image-makers and of war reportage.

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Nov 8, 2013
• Additional Information: Funders : Greek State Scholarships Foundation