Abstract
What did people in the late Middle Ages see when they beheld images of the crucified Christ? In the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, representations of the tormented body of Christ were surrounded by other vivid represen tations of physical violence: scenic portrayals of the Passion in religious plays; secular executions carefully staged in a religious context and referring to justice; and forgiveness and order restored via the display of the body of the executed. Based on visual reproductions of Christ's body, all these represen tations, however, posed problems of interpretation and control: How was it possible to differentiate between the true Christ and satanic Doppelgängers and impostors?
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