Chapter 9 Marking Political Legitimacy in Early Modern Images of Russia
In: Revolts and Political Violence in Early Modern ImagerySearch for other papers by Nancy S. Kollmann in
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Abstract
The reader interested in how imagery communicated about revolt and revolution in early modern Russia will be sorely disappointed, as no such images were produced there. The visual communication that did take place was contained in the illustrations of foreign travelers’ accounts from the sixteenth century onward. This chapter explores the absence in Russia of indigenously created images of political violence, particularly in broadsheets, and then turns to the few images of political violence that foreigners produced from eyewitness experience. The focus then narrows to a remarkable depiction of judicial punishment that communicated a quite specific message to the European audience about Russia. This was an engraving produced for Adam Olearius’ Travels to Russia and Persia.