Titre
Picturing Divinity in John Donne's Writings
Type
livre
Institution
UNIL/CHUV/Unisanté + institutions partenaires
Auteur(s)
Stirling, Kirsten
Auteure/Auteur
Liens vers les personnes
Liens vers les unités
Maison d’édition
D.S. Brewer
ISBN
9781805432470
Statut éditorial
Publié
Date de publication
2024-03-05
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Langue
anglais
Résumé
The five known portraits of John Donne and the many artworks bequeathed in his will bear witness to his interest in painting. His interest in art is also evident in his writings, with poems and sermons including many references to pictures and engravings, painters and sculptors. However, Donne never used his familiarity with painterly techniques to produce a simple ekphrasis or description in his writings. This book offers a new approach to Donne's rich and nuanced presentation of the visual arts in his writing, arguing that even his explicit allusions to pictures are less concrete than they may first appear. Although Donne was familiar with contemporary treatises on art, many of his most compelling references to paintings and painterly techniques come from his reading of theology, including works by Nicholas of Cusa and Martin Luther.These previously unidentified sources for Donne's painterly imagery help us to understand how the plastic arts become his tool to reveal the limits of representation, and thus to point beyond the material realm towards the unrepresentable and unknowable divine. This study provides new insights on some of his best-known poems, both secular and religious, and extends our appreciation of John Donne as an artist constantly exploring the limits of his own practice as a poet - and preacher - as he confronts the relationship between the human and the divine.
PID Serval
serval:BIB_AD937A816559
Date de création
2024-04-01T11:27:16.825Z
Date de création dans IRIS
2025-05-21T04:19:32Z