Art can be described by endless adjectives: beautiful, poignant, unique, surprising… grotesque? According to Dr. Mitzi Kirkland-Ives, associate professor of art and design at Missouri State University, pre-modern European art was rarely produced with the primary intention of being beautiful. She recently co-edited a book, “Death, Torture and the Broken Body in European Art, 1300-1650,” that explores the function of torture in art of the Renaissance era.

“In our culture, we’re not very used to talking about death and torture,” said Kirkland-Ives. “It’s something we avoid the whole concept of, but back in the day it was part of regular life and it had some strong functions.”

In order to be closer to Jesus or to understand the persecution of the saints, many early European Christians began to scour texts for grisly details about Christ’s death, she noted. When writing prayers to help the devoted emulate the suffering of Christ and his saints, these details were often included. Artists also used these details to create images, which could be quite macabre, that would be paired with the series of prayers to be meditated upon. This imagery is the focus of Kirkland-Ives’ essay in the book.

“Images of torture served devotional functions, and it served functions in terms of law and punishment and keeping order,” she added. “In any case, it’s somewhat foreign to today where we think of art as primarily about beauty. In those days…these images were powerful because they were not beautiful. These images could be absolutely grotesque.”