Albion′s Classicism – The Visual Arts in England 1550–1650 – Studies in British Art V 2: The Visual Arts in Britain, 1550-1660 - Hardcover

Gent, Lucy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0300063814 ISBN 13: 9780300063813

Publisher: Yale University Press, 1995

Synopsis

Visual arts in Britain between 1550 and 1650 have long been considered part of the classical Italian Renaissance canon. Now a distinguished group of scholars demonstrates that attitudes to classical art were in fact somewhat ambivalent during this period in Britain (or, as it is called poetically, Albion). For town halls and funeral monuments, for paintings and theatrical works, British artists, patrons, and builders made informed choices from the classical vocabulary while continuing to work within systems and circumstances quite distinct from those of classicism. The authors focus on the ways that local influences, habits, and visual sensibilities interacted with classicism and the work and methods of such masters as Inigo Jones in the evolution of British art, architecture, and literature in this era. Introduced and edited by Lucy Gent, this handsome book was written by contributors who come from the fields of history, art and architectural history, literary criticism, and emblematics. The book consists of essays by Lisa Jardine, Maurice Howard, Deborah Howard, Michael Bath, Paula Henderson, Nigel Llewellyn, Susan Foister, Margaret Aston, Keith Thomas, Christy Anderson, Ellen Chirelstein, Thomas Greene, Sasha Roberts, Alice Friedman, Gloria Kury, and Catherine Belsey.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

The essays in this volume demonstrate how unpredictable attitudes to classical art turn out to be in Britain during this period. They show how, from town halls to catafalques, British artists, patrons, and builders made informed choices from the classical vocabulary, while working within systems and circumstances quite distinct from those of classicism. They also disclose visual sensibilities, in architecture as in painting, that were extinguished and forgotten as classicism came to be regarded as the desirable norm. The visual world of Albion (an ancient name for the islands of Great Britain, now used poetically of Britain) that has been lost is here evoked and the contribution of Inigo Jones in particular is clarified.

Synopsis:

These essays show how unpredictable attitudes to classical art turn out to be in Britain during the period 1550-1650. They aim to show how British artists, patrons and builders made informed choices from the classical vocabulary while working within systems distinct from those of classicism.

About this edition

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 0300063814
• ISBN 13: 9780300063813
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 478