Remembering and Representing the Massacre
The rhetoric of violence during the Italian Wars assumed different forms in the poetry, painting, chronicles, sculpture, and other objects which can be linked to war and mass murder. These rhetorical expressions drew on classical and scriptural precedents and were sometimes common to different textual genres, or crossed from one medium to another—for example from the print to the maiolica dish. Although the emotional range of such evidence appears quite muted in comparison with modern representations of war and violence, nevertheless Renaissance Italians were able to explore the experience of war by means of the ancient language of the passions, the dehumanization and objectification or enumeration of casualties, and through the potent lens of Christian martyrdom.