WHAZHOT · MADE IN FLO' · ONLY IN FLO' · DISCOUNT COUPONS
sections
Booking
.
culture
.
A pacifist and feminist view of torture Bad habits die hard
[Sarah Katz]
Visitors to Florence should take a day at least to visit the beautiful medieval village of San Gimignano. Although the town has spread out in the last 700 years, the center still remains as it was centuries ago and the medieval walls still stand.Take time while you are there to see the Museo della Tortura. This world-famous museum holds an impressive collection of objects, from well-known devices such as the iron maiden and the pendulum to lesser-known ones like the oral pear, which was used to shatter the mouth of some one accused of seditious or heretical statements.
Although the building, formerly the town's prison, is filled with cruel instruments, it is not through overtly gory or dramatic imagery that it achieves its effect. The purpose of this museum is to educate, not to appall or sensationalize medieval practices. Each instrument is accompanied by a drawn representation of how it was used, but usually these are black and white and somewhat idealized 19th century images. There are a few graphic descriptions of processes or effects, but the majority of these are historical accounts that are simply giving accurate and realistic impressions of the particular act.
The rooms are clean, well lit, and generally comparable to any other sort of museum you might visit. Most of the rooms have a loosely based theme such as inquisitorial pieces or large structural implements. If a person were to simply walk through the museum, without paying particular attention to the descriptions of the pieces, the disturbing qualities would be primarily as a result of the individual's historical knowledge and imagination.
It is only by reading each of the descriptions of the pieces that the true impact of the museum can be realized. These emphasize how often humiliation and neglect were the real forms of torture, not simply pain or death from an Inquisitor. More often than not, death was caused by an infected judiciary wound than by the process itself. Humiliation and social oppression, especially towards women were used more often and more effectively than simply physical pain. The Museo della Tortura is truly impressive because it uses medieval torture devices as a vehicle for historical and modern social criticism. Often ironic and witty, the descriptions are decidedly pacifist and feminist.
Instruments of torture are not seen as remnants from a barbaric and brutal past, but as part of customs that still exist today. Many captions report that are still in use at the present, many with additional ironic tongue-in-cheek comments such as the inquisitor's chair of which "...today updated versions are used, improved by electricity..." Sometimes the location in which the specific form of torture is still done is given, but more often than not, the visitor is simply told that the practice still occurs. People are not given the relief of believing that torture is a practice of the past. Instead, they are instructed that the custom has only changes in that modern torture is devised to leave no permanent discernable marks upon the victim.
Any museum of this nature would be remiss if it did not discuss the extent that torture was directed toward women to some extent. They were cruelly punished and humiliated to serve as examples, to keep them quiet and subservient, and seemingly to simply provide a diversion. They could be severely punished for being quarrelsome or "shrewish," or at any suspicion of promiscuous or subversive behavior. Here, however, the criticism goes beyond discussion of the brutality and ignorance, but sees torture as an inborn desire of men to oppress women. The impulse to torture is seen as a facet of the male nature, which is directed toward women because, "in the tenebrosity of his unilluminable nature the male is terrified by the mysteries of the female cycles and fecundity" and "by her inherent intellectual, emotional, and sexual superiority."
Even the church is not left unscathed in this modern and historical criticism. In addition to the obvious condemnation of the Inquisition, a caption facetiously remarks after a description of the pain and humiliation of death on a cross that, of course, this instrument immediately became the dominant icon of Christianity.
In the last room of the museum, the theme of the entire exhibition is quietly but pointedly stated. Beside an romanticized 19th century picture of a woman being tortured a caption states that from the 1800s to the present there has been a cultural "twisting of torture in the traditional image-making processes, processes that deny the existence of inconvenient facts" and that, "torture, far from being what it is, [has taken] on a nostalgic quality, like children's war games and statues and prints of patriotic heroes."
Whether or not you agree with the assertions of the Museo della Tortura, it is a valuable experience that forces people to confront an evil of the past and present. Through a combination of humor and professionalism, the museum challenges some of the basic assumptions of western culture, history, and society that will leave you seeing torture in a completely different light.
Practical Info:
MUSEO CRIMINALE MEDIEVALE
Via del Castello, 1/3
San Gimignano (Siena)
Info 0577.942243
TOURIST OFFICE
Piazza Duomo, 1
San Gimignano (Siena)
Tel. 0577.940008
www.sangimignano.com
GETTING THERE:
Sita operates daily between Florence and San Gimignano
Bus times are available at
www.sita-on-line.it
Infoline freephone: 800.373760
We wish to thank Agriturismo Vallebuia for accommodating Sarah Katz
MORE
http://www.sangimignano.com/
http://www.sita-on-line.it/