ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the benefits and challenges of using visual sources in the study of the history of emotions. The essay will draw examples ranging from Greek representations to the age of the selfie. Considerable attention will be devoted to the purposes behind artistic representations, from government programmes as in the later Ottoman Empire, to commercial uses of the visual arts. National imagery in representing emotions in battle constitutes another powerful source which, however, requires evaluation. At the same time, visual sources often not only supplement other materials on the history of emotion, but provide distinctive information as well. The rise of smiling representations in eighteenth-century Western art, for example, suggests changing approaches to cheerfulness well in advance of other evidence. Careful readings of visual sources can let scholars discover important changes in family expectations, gender norms, even hope and fear.
