`Unspeakable Acts` revisits a pivotal moment in the art world`s treatment of sexual violence
(Artdaily.org)

In “Unspeakable Acts,” a new book about how artists have made sense (or not) of sexual violence against women, Nancy Princenthal draws a subtle but crucial distinction: Just because an act was long deemed “unspeakable” didn’t necessarily mean that it wasn’t shown. In art as in life, abuse has been a constant; what changed in the 1970s, Princenthal says, is who depicted the experience and how it was consequently understood. “No era or culture has lacked images of women in extremis,” Princenthal writes, pointing to a canon replete with representations of sexual violence and coercion. In the 16th century, Titian painted the rape of Lucretia three times; a hundred years later, Rembrandt painted it twice. Although their styles diverged — Titian depicted the moment of attack and Rembrandt her ensuing suicide — they both turned rape into “pure allegory,” Princenthal writes. Violent and