The War Against the Arts: Sex and the Sacred in the Early Modern England PDF

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04/03/2020

The War Against the Arts: Sex and the Sacred in the Early Modern England Henry VIII had been a patron of the Arts. But there was a lesser development of English painting. Grim quality to portraits, flat, poor quality paintings representing Elizabeth I. The context of these images is artistic and political through allergisations of Elizabeth, among the Goddesses. They use the pagan idolatries with the pagan queen on top. Move away from naturalism with portraits not necessarily realist with what the Queen looked like. Anglican hypocrisy with the excommunication of the Queen from the Roman Catholic church but borrowing elements of art and religion from the Roman Church. Two late painting “The mask of Youth” are facelift for the 1590s. Elisabeth was politically vulnerable since she wasn’t married, it would be turned into a positive point by divinising her -> great propaganda plan. The Sieve Portrait, she is claiming a rejection of sexuality and political ambition, virginal weakness transformed into a strength. The Armada Portrait, as a celebration of the defeat of the Catholic Spanish invasion, which failed on the sea. The globe is in front, the perspective makes no sense, with a gigantic Elisabeth, whose body serves as a metaphor for England -> asexual/antisexual. The Rainbow Portrait, the Queen shown as an angel, a goddess. Despite protestant iconoclasm, there was an Elizabethan version of sexualised art, idea of an immortal goddess. Nicholas Hilliard: major painter at the time Poetry and painting are often put together as arts, but both proclaim the opposition between them. Visual poetics. The Metamorphis of Ovid, Venus and Adonis by Titien, feminine touch in man and masculine touch in woman. How words can make a Venus as appealing as a painting. Not pornography but eroticism since the imagination is still required. Venus is Jupiter and Adonis. The spectator consents the representation by rending of viewing it -> representation of women as objects. Adonis has a divine image, Christ-like quality, even if his is a human. Sexuality is the key factor between sacred and human. In the poem, Adonis confronts Venus who is trying to rape him, criticising her lust (opposed to love)...