Motus mixti et compositi: The Portrayal of Mixed and Compound Emotions in the Visual and Literary Arts of Europe, 1500–1700

The book examines the representation of affective complexity in the literary and pictorial arts of Northern Europe between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, asking how and why, by what means and to what ends alloyed or multilayered emotions were showcased.

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The book consists of two volumes that examine deployments of mixed emotion in the literary and pictorial arts of early modern Europe. Volume 1 has two parts, the first focusing on portrayals of mixed emotion in theatre, poetry, and prose, the second on forms and functions of mixed emotion in spiritual exercises centering on pictorial images, and on heuristic and/or restorative functions of portraying mixed emotion. Volume 2 takes the form of a monograph on the myth of Hercules and Omphale/Iole, which, following in the wake of Lukas Cranach’s brilliant pictorial inventions of the 1530s, became a popular epitome for the skilful display of mixed emotions, not just in Germany but also Italy and elsewhere.