ABSTRACT
The Council of Trent was convened by Pope Paul III to defend and clarify Catholic doctrine after decades of Protestant attacks. If the sixteenth century saw the dawn of a truly global early modern Catholicism, in O'Malley's useful term, its art was the first with a truly global mission. With pressures on all sides—whether in the form Protestantism, wayward Catholics, unco-operative secular authorities, or New World natives in need of pastoral care—images were a crucial tool for the furthering of the Church's ideals. The Council was convened to address what had by that point become the unavoidable fact of Protestantism. In Northern Italy, especially in Lombardy, there was a longstanding independent tradition of affective naturalism that predated the Council, and informed the work of both Caravaggio and the Carracci. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book.
