the importance of images

Even in the early phases of afforable print culture, imagery was often used to record important events. Early in the period of the French Wars of Religion, two artists were comissioned to record the major events of the previous two decades. Jacques Tortorel and Jacques Perrissin over the course of several years produced 40 engraved images depicting the numerous battles, massacres, punishments and crimes of the first three Wars of Religion. The understanding of popular imagery is important to all historians who study times when a majority of the population was illiterate. Although theentire set of image would have been expensive to purchase, it is entirely possible that single sheets were purchased by families, for aesthetic or personal reasons.

the objective: contextual analysis

What can be gleaned from any or all of these images is how popular forms of violence, religious piety and martyrdom were understood by the people who produced these images, or who may have purchased the prints. The objective of this site is to provide teaching tools to explain how popular imagery can be a usefultool for historical understanding and interpretation.