Copyright

Kirsten Stirling

Published with the support of the Swiss National Science Foundation.

Some rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved

above, any part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into

a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic,

mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise)

The right of Kirsten Stirling to be identified as

the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with

sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

First published 2024

D. S. Brewer, Cambridge

ISBN 978-1-84384-707-6 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-80543-247-0 (ePDF)

ISBN 978-180543-248-7 (ePUB)

This book is available under the Open Access license CC BY-NC-ND

D. S. Brewer is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd

PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK

and of Boydell & Brewer Inc.

668 Mt Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620-2731, USA

website: www.boydellandbrewer.com

A catalogue record for this title is available

from the British Library

The publisher has no responsibility for the continued existence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate

Details

Picturing Divinity in John Donne's Writings

Stable URL:https://openaccess.boydellandbrewercms.com/?id=-274256

Open Access license

A new approach to the visual arts in the work of John Donne

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.

On publication this book is available as an Open Access eBook under the Creative Commons license: CC BY-NC.

Author

Kirsten Stirling

PublisherD.S.Brewer

Print publication date Mar, 2024

Print ISBN 9781843847076

EISBN 9781805432487

Base text size -

Copyright

Picturing Divinity in John Donne's Writings

Chapter illustrations ()