Scholarly Works - History of Art
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Item Open Access Accepted version Peer-reviewed Gustav Metzger: Iconoclasm and Interdisciplinarity(Taylor & Francis, 2017-07-24) Fisher, EAGustav Metzger (1926–2017) has been described as ‘the conscience of the art world’ for the consistently political content of his art and his commitment to political activism on the subject of nuclear weapons, capitalism and environmentalism. Metzger’s artistic output from the late 1950s onwards reflects a theory of art as both aesthetic form and social action and identifies him as a key precursor of activist art. This article considers the inherent interdisciplinarity of Metzger’s practice as it evolved during this early period between the late 1950s and early 1970s in relation to his agenda of social engagement.Item Open Access Accepted version Peer-reviewed An unexpected role reversal: Pavel Tretyakov and the international exhibition of 1862(Brill Deutschland GmbH, 2017) Blakesley, RP; Blakesley, Rosalind [0000-0001-9181-9369]Abstract In 1862, the collector Pavel Tretyakov made his second visit to Britain, and lent three paintings to the International Exhibition held in London that year. Then aged just thirty, he had bought his first Russian paintings just six years previously, yet his collection was already of sufficient calibre for the Imperial Academy of Arts in St. Petersburg to desire works from it for the Russian submission to the London event. Moreover, the genre paintings which Tretyakov lent added spice to what was otherwise a rather routine academic display. In this respect, Tretyakov’s contribution to the 1862 exhibition could be seen to foretell his later patronage of the Peredvizhniki, who similarly unsettled the academic status quo. Yet one small but telling fact disrupts this narrative of a collector who championed the innovative and the marginalized. Tretyakov had in fact suggested lending to the exhibition paintings by Vladimir Borovikovsky, Fedor Bruni, Karl Briullov and Vasily Khudiakov, all of whom were established members of the academic firmament. But his proposal was overruled and replaced by the alternative selection of genre paintings put forward by Fedor Iordan, a stalwart of the Academy. Far from confirming an image of Tretyakov as a nonconformist whose pioneering vision shook up the practices of the establishment, the case of the 1862 exhibition thus sees the binary which has often been drawn between this ground-breaking collector and the hidebound conservatism of the Academy significantly reversed.Item Open Access Accepted version Peer-reviewed Pandora at Petworth House: new light on the work and patronage of Louis Laguerre(The Burlington Magazine Publications Ltd., 2016-12-01) Zeitler, LKAN OIL SKETCH by Louis Laguerre in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (Fig.15), has long been assumed to depict The marriage of Cupid and Psyche for the decora- tion of the staircase ceiling commissioned by Thomas Os- borne, 1st Duke of Leeds, for Kiveton House, Yorkshire, which was destroyed in 1812.1 Nonetheless it can now be clearly associated with the extant staircase ceiling mural at Petworth House, West Sussex, executed by Laguerre in 1719, the subject of which is Pandora receiving gifts from the gods (Fig.16).2 Moreover, the identification of the subject of this sketch prompts us to look again at the iconogra- phy of the staircase at Petworth, a house that includes other murals by Laguerre, and on the circumstances surrounding the commission, carried out during the lifetimes of Charles Seymour, 6th Duke of Somerset (1662–1748), and his ex- ceptionally wealthy wife, the heiress of Petworth and other Percy family estates, Lady Elizabeth (1667–1722).Item Open Access Accepted version Peer-reviewed An Early Miniature Copy of the Choir Vault of Wells Cathedral at Irnham, Lincolnshire(Informa UK Limited, 2016) Binski, PThe parish church of St Andrew at Irnham in Lincolnshire possesses a richly carved stone monument dating to around 1340 which bears the arms of Sir Geoffrey and Agnes Luttrell, associated with the celebrated Luttrell Psalter. The form, imagery and function of this monument are problematical and are discussed first in order to create a context for an unusual aspect of its architecture, namely that its inner vault is a miniature copy, unique in this part of England, of the main vault of the choir of Wells Cathedral, a so-called ‘net’ vault. Amongst the reasons for such an unusual citation may be the existence in Somerset, in the diocese of Wells, of one branch of the Luttrell family at the time this monument was raised.Item Open Access Accepted version Peer-reviewed Quantification of (p)rebound effects in retrofit policies - Why does it matter?(Elsevier BV, 2016) Galvin, R; Sunikka-Blank, M; Galvin, R [0000-0001-9279-4263]The ‘prebound effect’ characterises how average heating energy consumption in older homes is consistently lower than these buildings' calculated energy ratings, and helps explain why energy savings from thermal upgrades are often lower than anticipated. This paper explores the conceptual links between prebound and rebound effects and aims to quantify these behavioural effects. It applies the resulting mathematical model to empirical examples of actual and calculated energy consumption at scales of individual dwelling and national housing stock. These show that the rebound effect, as defined in econometrics literature, can only indicate proportionate reductions in energy consumption and can mask high levels of absolute consumption. The prebound effect, however, can identify under- and over-consumption regardless of rebound effects. A combination of high prebound effect and low income suggests fuel poverty, and the rebound effect here is less relevant regarding total energy consumption. Policymakers should identify housing with high prebound effects in order to eliminate fuel poverty, and be aware of inaccuracies in calculating payback time where economic viability of retrofits is mandated. Further research is needed to understand motivations and practices in households that have high prebound effects and to identify specific priority groups for thermal retrofit policy.Item Open Access Accepted version Peer-reviewed Richard Haydocke’s Oneirologia: A Manuscript Treatise on Sleep and Dreams, including the ‘Arguments’ of King James i(Brill, 2017-03-02) Marr, AlexanderRichard Haydocke’s manuscript treatise Oneirologia (1605) is a learned account in English of the medical nature of sleep and dreams. This article presents a commented edition of the manuscript, an account of the circumstances that led to its composition, and a commentary on its contents. Apparently composed on the orders of King James i (whose ‘arguments’ against rational discourse in sleep it includes), Oneirologia is a significant document in the history of early modern erudition. The treatise reflects the orthodox physiognomic and psychological explanations of sleep and dreaming expounded in the universities, as well as its author’s experience as a writer on and practitioner of the visual arts. A product of the febrile political climate in England around the time of the Gunpowder Plot, Oneirologia touches upon major themes in society and religion, including the nature of royal authority, mens rea, and divine revelation.Item Open Access Accepted version Peer-reviewed Artistic Labour: Seeking a Utopian Dimension(OpenEdition, 2016-04-01) Bağcıoğlu, NeylanThis article investigates the notion of artistic labour by elucidating how artists can create ethical social relations to perform “a new, possible world” by reinserting labour and advocacy into their practice. An examination of contemporary works by Ahmet Öğüt and Cevdet Erek who attempt to create micro-utopias by situating artistic labour at their core or by emphasising the power of networks and the “commons” to foster social integration are juxtaposed with the discussion of a possible genealogy of such utopian artistic attempts from the late 1960s and 1970s. The historical trajectory delineates the common denominators of artistic practices that proceed from utopian ideals such as anti-isolation, anti social division, anti self-reflexivity, process instead of object-based work, and investment in human value rather than materialistic value.Item Open Access Delegating (Community) Action: Stuart Brisley's Peterlee Project(Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 2016-01-10) Bagcioglu, NeylanItem Open Access Accepted version Peer-reviewed Shakespeare, Sidney, and Spenser in an Early Continental Library(Oxford University Press (OUP), 2016-03) Marr, AlexanderThis article presents an account of a hitherto unpublished library list in the Bibliothàque nationale de France: MS fr. 4188. The list, preceded by an inventory of mathematical instruments, provides entries for a little under 1,000 books of poetry, theology, philosophy, history, antiquarianism, mathematics, and the trivial arts, published between 1474 and 1621. The entries are distinguished by a high degree of bibliographical detail, including information about the books’ bindings. Dominated by Latin imprints, the library also includes a number of titles in French (the probable nationality of the owner) and English, including works by Shakespeare, Spenser and Sidney. It constitutes very early—perhaps the earliest—evidence for continental ownership of Shakespeare's poems The Rape of Lucrece and Venus and Adonis. The English works are discussed in relation to the other learned interests of the owner, whose identity, profession and confession are speculated upon.Item Open Access Pregnant Wit:ingegnoin Renaissance England(Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, 2015-11-30) Marr, AlexanderAn online, open-access and peer-reviewed academic journal for research on all aspects of British art, architecture and visual culture.Item Open Access Accepted version Peer-reviewed Close Looking and Conviction(Oxford University Press (OUP), 2017-02) Rose, SamThis essay offers theoretical and practical reflections on the operations involved in description and interpretation based on close looking. Explanations are given of the necessary appeal to contexts of origin or reception in order to disambiguate works of art, the widespread though rarely acknowledged reliance on an attenuated form of intention, and the way in practice that contexts are mobilized in the description or ‘redescription’ of works of art. Wider points made concern scepticism about the idea that works of art might determine their own interpretation (including problems with claims made as part of the phenomenological turn in image studies for the priority of direct or unmediated responses to works of art), the quasi-allegorical nature of even ostensibly object-centred interpretation, and consequences of the fact that modernism can function as a kind of context.Item Open Access Accepted version Peer-reviewed ‘God is in the details’: visual culture of closeness in the circle of Cardinal Reginald Pole(Wiley, 2016-11) de la Verpillière, LorraineAbstractAs one of the most important political and religious figures of the mid sixteenth century, Cardinal Reginald Pole (1500–58) has been the subject of valuable historical studies. Although the English prelate was also a humanist, part of a vast intellectual and artistic network he established during his travels to Italy, Flanders, Spain and England, Pole has yet to receive the attention he deserves in History of Art. This article aims at re‐appreciating the artistic patronage of the cardinal, in spite of the difficulties raised by the lack of surviving artworks he commissioned and his apparent insensitivity to visual arts. It will be shown that Pole and his religious circle, the spirituali, tried to develop a visual culture of their own, influenced by their religious beliefs and meditational practices. Building on Michelangelo's famous presentation drawings to Vittoria Colonna – the Pietà and the Crucifixion – as well as on painted and drawn works deriving from them by the hand of other artists, this paper examines Pole and his friends’ preference for sober, small‐sized and confidential artworks, suggesting the genre of the miniature as a promising avenue of research as regards to Pole's patronage.