Illustrations

Kirsten Stirling

Illustrations

Cover: Rogier van der Weyden (c. 1400–1464), Netherlandish, Saint Luke Drawing the Virgin (detail), c. 1435–1440. Oil and tempera on panel. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Lee Higginson, 93.153. Photograph © 2024 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

1. John Donne, by Unknown English Artist. (“The Lothian Portrait”) c. 1595. Oil on Panel. NPG 6790, © National Portrait Gallery, London.

2. Portrait of Dr. Donne, by William Marshall. Print used as frontispiece to various editions of his poems, 1635–1650. D25490, © National Portrait Gallery, London.

3. Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece). Workshop of Robert Campin. c. 1427–1432. Oil on oak. The Cloisters Collection, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

4. Doom painting in St. Peter’s Church, Wenhaston, Suffolk, England. Image © Simon Knott and reprinted by permission of the photographer.

5. The Resurrection of Christ and the Women at the Tomb, by Fra Angelico. c. 1439–1443. Fresco. Ministero per i Beni e le Attività Culturali , Polo Museale della Toscana, Museo di San Marco, Firenze.

6. The Last Judgement, by Joos van Cleve. c. 1525–1530. Oil on wood. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

The author and publisher are grateful to all the institutions and individuals listed for permission to reproduce the materials in which they hold copyright. Every effort has been made to trace the copyright holders; apologies are offered for any omission, and the publisher will be pleased to add any necessary acknowledgement in subsequent editions.

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

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Illustrations

Picturing Divinity in John Donne's Writings

Chapter illustrations ()