British Romanticism and the reception of Italian old master art, 1793-1840

Abstract

Offering cultural, historical and literary readings of the responses to Italian Old Master art by early nineteenth-century writers, McCue illuminates the important role these artworks played in shaping the themes that are central to our understanding of Romanticism. She argues that they informed the writing of Romantic period authors, enabling them to forge often surprising connections between Italian art, the imagination and the period's political, social and commercial realities.

Contents

Introduction; 1 Attempting 'To Engraft Italian Art on English Nature'; 2 Connoisseurship; 3 Making Literature; 4 Samuel Rogers's Italy; Conclusion