Aut numquid post annos mille quingentos docenda est Ecclesia Catholica quomodo sacrae imagines pingantur?: Post–Tridentine Image Reform and the Myth of Gabriele Paleotti

The author attempts, by considering publication data and Gabriele Paleotti’s failed Discorso intorno alle imagini sacre e profane, to contribute to the further nuancing and remapping of the Catholic Reformation, via analysis of image reform. Evidence suggests that the Council of Trent, Rome, or the Curia were not perceived as initiating image reform; in fact, by 1600 some Catholic leaders regarded all three as reformatory failures. Publication data and the travesty of the Discorso bespeak the initial acentric, reactionary nature of post–Tridentine image reform, evoking an image of Rome and the Curia in which dissent held sway, even amongst purported figureheads of reform.