Duquesne University Duquesne Scholarship Collection Electronic Theses and Dissertations Fall 1-1-2003 Interart Studies from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Era: Stylistic Parallels between English Poetry and the Visual Arts Roberta Aronson Follow this and additional works at: https://dsc.duq.edu/etd Recommended Citation Aronson, R. (2003). Interart Studies from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Era: Stylistic Parallels between English Poetry and the Visual Arts (Doctoral dissertation, Duquesne University). Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/11 This Worldwide Access is brought to you for free and open access by Duquesne Scholarship Collection. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Duquesne Scholarship Collection. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Interart Studies from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Era: Stylistic Parallels between English Poetry and the Visual Arts A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts Duquesne University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Roberta Chivers Aronson October 1, 2003 @Copyright by Roberta Chivers Aronson, 2003 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to extend my appreciation to my many colleagues and family members whose collective support and inspiration underlie all that I do: • To my Provost, Dr. Ralph Pearson, for his kind professional encouragement, • To my Dean, Dr. Connie Ramirez, who creates a truly collegial and supportive academic environment, • To my Director, Dr. Albert C. Labriola, for his intellectual generosity and guidance; to Dr. Bernard Beranek for his enthusiasm and thoughtful conversation; and to Dr. Madeline Archer, for her narrative insights and art historical perspective, • To my husband, Richard, for his unflagging encouragement, his versatile intellect, his constant willingness to listen and to help me clarify my thinking, and, most of all, for his love, • To my father, Hobie Chivers, who kept encouraging me to finish, • And to my mother, Dr. Frances Chivers, who taught me by example from my earliest days that the world of ideas provides perpetual nourishment and joy. Her example is a most cherished legacy from a life cut off too young. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER ONE The Pearl Poet and International Gothic Art 14 CHAPTER TWO Expressionism in Late Medieval Poetry and Art: William Langland the Rohan Master 50 CHAPTER THREE Visual Milton: The Garden of Eden and the Baroque Classical Landscape 83 CHAPTER FOUR Visual Milton: Baroque Tenebrism and Paradise Lost 124 EPILOGUE 170 ILLUSTRATIONS 180 BIBLIOGRAPHY 207 iii Illustrations Plate 1 Limbourg Brothers: “January” The Très Riches Heures of Jean, Duke of Berry, 1413-16. Musée Condé, Chantilly Plate 2 Limbourg Brothers: “May” The Très Riches Heures of Jean, Duke of Berry, 1413-16. Musée Condé, Chantilly Plate 3 Robert Campin “The Merode Altarpiece,” 1425-28. Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cloisters, New York Plate 4 Limbourg Brothers: “February” The Très Riches Heures of Jean, Duke of Berry, 1413-16. Musée Condé, Chantilly Plate 5 The Limbourg Brothers, “August” The Très Riches Heures of Jean, Duke of Berry, 1413-16. Musée Condé, Chantilly. Plate 6 The Rohan Master, “Lamentation” The Rohan Master A Book of Hours, c. 1425. Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. Plate 7 The Rohan Master, “Dying Man before Christ” The Rohan Master A Book of Hours, c. 1425. Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. Plate 8 The Rohan Master, “Annunciation to the Shepherds” The Rohan Master A Book of Hours, c. 1425. Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. Plate 9 Limbourg Brothers, “Annunciation to the Shepherds” The Très Riches Heures of Jean, Duke of Berry, 1413-16. Musée Condé, Chantilly. Plate 10 Pseudo-Jacquemart, “Lamentation” The Grandes Heures of Jean, Duke of Berry, 1407-09. Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. Plate 11 Annibale Carracci and Domenichino, “Flight into Egypt,” 1603. Galleria Doria Pamphili, Rome Plate 12 Domenichino, “The Ford,” 1604-05. Galleria Doria Pamphili, Rome Plate 13 Domenichino, “Landscape with Hercules Fighting Achelous,” 1622- 23. Louvre, Paris Plate 14 Giorgione/Titian, “Pastoral Symphony,” c. 1508. Louvre, Paris Plate 15 Nicolas Poussin, “Et in Arcadia Ego,” 1650-55. Louvre, Paris iv Plate 16 Guercino, “Et in Arcadia Ego,” 1621-23. Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Antica, Rome. Plate 17 Plan and Reconstruction of the Gardens at Theobalds, 1575-85. Outside of London Plate 18 Giusto Utens, Lunette of Pratolino, 1599. Museo Storico di Firenze, Florence. Plate 19 Caravaggio, “Calling of St. Matthew,” 1599-1600. Contarelli Chapel, S. Luigi dei Francesi, Rome Plate 20 Caravaggio, “Conversion of St. Paul,” 1601. Cerasi Chapel, S. M. del Popolo, Rome Plate 21 Gerard Honthorst, “Supper with Lute Player,” c. 1625-30. Uffizi, Florence Plate 22 Rembrandt, “Supper at Emmaus,” 1628 or 1629. Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris. Plate 23 Rembrandt “Holy Family,” 1640. Louvre, Paris Plate 24 Carpaccio, “Calling of St. Matthew,” 15th century, Oratorio degli Schiavoni, Venice Plate 25 Michelangelo, “Conversion of St. Paul,” 1545. Cappella Paolina, Rome Plate 26 Rembrandt, “Supper at Emmaus,” 1648. Statens Museum, Copenhagen Plate 27 Rembrandt, “Supper at Emmaus,” 1648. Louvre, Paris v INTRODUCTION Interart studies constitute a small but ongoing current of literary criticism throughout the twentieth century. The term “interart studies” is broadly used here to identify literary criticism which looks to the visual arts to provide insights about a wide range of literary issues from form, to style, to content. Interart studies are relatively few in number, which may be explained by the relative rarity of interdisciplinary studies in general. But it is curious that throughout the twentieth century, interart studies occupy a distinct category of literary criticism. In this proposal, I would like to provide a brief history of interart scholarship and then to situate my own studies within it. Interart studies must be carefully delineated and defined as a branch of literary criticism, which is an important point to make relative to the discipline of art history. Jean Seznec recorded his conversation with Gustave Lanson when the former approached the latter for suggestions about undertaking advanced study interrelating the history of literature and the history of art. Lanson commented, "I see," he said; "you want to be a Janus bifrons; but beware. You run the risk of being rejected by both sides. Literary historians will disown you as belonging to the other camp, while the art historians will ignore you as a mere trespasser."1 Interart studies may be reviewed historically as having gone through three rather distinct stages in the twentieth century. The first stage encompasses the forty years before the outbreak of World War II; the second stage encompasses the work of the post-war years stretching from about 1945 to 1972; and the final stage encompasses the last twenty-five years of the twentieth century. I suggest 1 Jean Seznec, “Art and Literature: A Plea for Humility,” New Literary History 3 (Spring, 1972): 569. Seznec (d. 1983) reports this conversation and warning as given to him “as a young student.” Gustave Lanson’s life from1857-1934 situates this advice, therefore, around the 1920’s. 2 these historical periods as convenient, if somewhat arbitrary, delineations which can provide a helpful framework for both reviewing the history of interart studies and for situating my own interart studies within a larger context. The pre-war corpus of interart studies was neatly summarized by René Wellek's influential 1941 article," Literature and the Arts." Central to this early group of interart studies was Wölfflin's 1915 Principles of Art History, which, in Wellek's words, "soon excited the envy and competition of literary historians."2 Wölfflin's establishment of broad stylistic categories to characterize Renaissance and Baroque art and to differentiate clearly between the two had an immediate impact on literary historians, who sought to find comparable structural and stylistic categories in English literature. Several German literary historians quickly followed in the wake of Wölfflin and others to participate in the broad scholarly movement of "geistesgeschichte." Under the umbrella of looking to the visual arts, music and literature for common thematic and aesthetic patterns, “geistesgeschichte” provided an intellectual framework for broad interrelationships between and among the diverse arts. Though René Wellek highlighted the shortcomings of these early interart studies, he also called for continuing them, though they would be enriched by more disciplined approaches. Wellek does not presume to provide such approaches; rather, he emphasizes the need for them. This early strand of interart studies from about 1900-1940 reads now as highly subjective and uneven. Wellek's call to greater discipline seeds the field of interart studies for the generation of scholars following the war. René Wellek's scholarly stature imbued his call for greater discipline and precision in interart studies with immediate force. The postwar generation of 2 René Wellek, “The Parallelism between Literature and the Arts,” The English Institute Annual (1941) 33. 3 interart scholars almost without exception cite Wellek's 1941 article and situate their studies in relation to its recommendations. A few examples will suffice to indicate both the impact of Wellek's article and the emerging patterns