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 early modern or late medieval period.