Image féminine difforme – entre superstitions et réalité. À propos des images rendues monstres à travers l’iconographie médiévale

The plentiful literature and the iconography devoted to the subject of incredible creatures, known form Antiquity, widespread during the Middle Ages and up to the modern period, often refer to a female human being transformed into, based on different interpretations, a creature with animalistic characteristics recognized as “monster”. In this context the disposition to “re-present”, resulting from the ability to create new images inspired by the unusual, is closely related to the indirect thought process of which imagination, as an intermediary between the sensual experience and the image projected by mind, is an intrinsic element. In consequence the dissimilarity results in distortion of the image, including the depictions which stigmatize the image of a woman, which alienate this image through mystifying reality – in particular, the nature of the phenomenon, un-investigated, obscured or hidden, in medieval society, pathological conditions.