Byron and Visual Culture
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UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations 1-1-2006 A poetic canvas: Byron and visual culture William Donati University of Nevada, Las Vegas Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/rtds Repository Citation Donati, William, "A poetic canvas: Byron and visual culture" (2006). UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations. 2698. http://dx.doi.org/10.25669/xbni-ubz0 This Dissertation is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Dissertation in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/or on the work itself. This Dissertation has been accepted for inclusion in UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Scholarship@UNLV. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A POETIC CANVAS: BYRON AND VISUAL CULTURE by William Donati Bachelor of Arts University of Memphis 1970 Master of Arts University of California, Los Angeles 1976 Master of Arts University of Memphis 2001 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy Degree in English Department of English College of Liberal Arts Graduate College University of Nevada, Las Vegas December 2006 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 3256285 Copyright 2007 by Donati, William All rights reserved. INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. 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Dissertation Approval EmmsBEas The Graduate College University of Nevada, Las Vegas November 17 ■ 20 06 The Dissertation prepared by William John Donati Entitled A Poetic Canvas: Byron and Visual Culture is approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Examination Committee Chair Dean of the Graduate College mnaito Examinatinn Committee Member Graduate College Faculty Representative n Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT A Poetic Canvas: Byron and Visual Culture by William Donati Dr. Timothy Erwin Examination Committee Chair, Department of English University of Nevada, Las Vegas A Poetic Canvas: Byron and Visual Culture argues for a reading of Byron’s poems within the cultural context of the sister arts of poetry and painting. In addition, the theatre and sculpture were also influential as visual inspiration for Byron. This study reveals the poet’s substantial knowledge of the visual arts; consequently, informed by images he knew, readings convey a richer context of significance. The influence of drawings, print caricature, and paintings is found to he substantial, and the research challenges Byron’s own statements, often repeated, that he knew nothing of painting. Although Byron is regarded as a poet of the Romantic Period, he was a reluctant Romantic. This study will show the lingering validation of the Augustan Period in the first decades of the nineteenth century, even as poetry was changing in both theme and form. Byron regarded his contemporary poets as writing “upon a wrong revolutionary poetical system.” Despite his assertion that Pope was the epitome of British poetry, Byron was extremely proud of Don Juan, his unique masterpiece, and insisted that the poem was part of a literary tradition, a work that extends the heritage of poetic satire. Ill Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT........................................................................................................................... iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................. v CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION......................................................................................1 Newstead’s Lost Collection ..............................................................................................5 Post-Augustan Enthusiasts; Byron and Jamieson ........................................................24 Pantheon of Poets ....................;......................................................................................34 The New Bath Guide......................................................................................................38 CHAPTER 2 VISUAL IMAGES OF THE PAST AND PRESENT..............................51 The Picturesque ...............................................................................................................52 The Gothic Tow er.......................................................................................................... 57 The G rave........................................................................................................................ 59 A Stiff Yet Grand Erection ............................................................................................82 CHAPTER 3 ‘THE VERY POMPES OF THE DIVELL’ ............................................110 Don Juan: The Star of the Pantomime ........................................................................117 Sculpture: The Highest Form of A rt ........................................................................... 150 CHAPTER 4 THE VACANT GALLERY ADORNED...............................................157 Illumination ................................................................................................................... 159 Lavater’s Physiognomy............................................................................................... 163 CODA BYRON: VISUAL ICON AND ARTISTIC INSPIRATION..........................175 APPENDIX VISUAL REPRESENTATIONS................................................................192 BIBLIOGRAPHY...............................................................................................................276 VITA ....................................................................................................................................286 IV Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank Dr. Timothy Erwin, Professor of Eighteenth Century Literature, for proposing the idea of exploring the relationship between Byron’s works and visual culture. Dr. Erwin, an authority on Jane Austen, provided scholarly insight regarding the interaction of art and literature in the eighteenth century. I would like to also thank Dr. Darlene Unrue and Dr. Mark Weinstein for their help, also Haidee Jackson, curator at Newstead Abbey, kindly provided the auction catalogues of the fifth Lord Byron. The following institutions were helpful in providing assistance: The Huntington Library, San Marino; the Lied Library, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas; the Research Library, the University of California, Los Angeles, and the McWherter Library, the University of Memphis. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION This study traces for the first time the way in which Byron’s poems intersect with visual culture, offering an analysis of the manner in which painting, drawing, print caricature and the theatre figure in Byron’s poems. Although references to Byron and the visual arts exist, the depth of research is superficial, possibly due to Byron’s own statement: “Of painting I know nothing.”* Despite this self-critical comment, made more than once, Byron obviously did know a great deal about painting and visual culture. This study explores Byron’s interest, understanding, and use of paintings, prints, and art theory. Moreover, Byron was extremely familiar with the theater and sculpture; both arts were sources of influence. This study also presents an analysis of Christopher Anstey’s The New Bath Guide. This amusing satire has been forgotten but played an important role in Byron’s penchant for witty satire. To begin, Byron was a friend of Richard Payne Knight, a prominent aesthetician, whose extensive writings were highly regarded by Byron. Byron owned a copy of Knight’s An Analytical Inquiry Into the Principles o f Taste. Knight believed that sculpture was the highest form of art, an aesthetic position that Byron adopted. Byron also read and approved of artist Martin Archer Shee’s Rhymes on Art, as evident in English Bards and Scotch Reviewers. Byron recognized the painter as an equal.