Reading a “Titian”: Visual Methods and the Limits of Interpretation

Contemporary criminology is witnessing something of a 'visual turn' and as researchers develop their methods of enquiry it is clear that interdisciplinary scholarship will play a key role in shaping inventive approaches in it. In this article, I discuss some of the different ways art historians have 'read' images and the multiple connections they have forged to understand an artwork, before turning to how these approaches have been mobilized in a single example: Titian's Flaying of Marsyas, which dates from the 1570s, and is among the most disturbing images in the entire history of art.