Painting the Bible : Representation and Belief in Mid-Victorian Britain (Hardcover)

Contents: Introduction: Translating the Bible for the age: Themes at once sacred and stale: the problem of religious painting; Painting the Bible: issues and methodologies; Part I Religious Painting and the High Art Ideal: Tradition, modification and innovation: Under the sanction of a Royal Academy: the lectures of Henry Howard and Charles Robert Leslie; The practice of religious painting and the periodical press; The case of Benjamin Robert Haydon: the reform of tradition and the quest for public space; Charles Lock Eastlake and the undefinable archquality of sentiment; Modification and innovation: continental influence and matters of genre; Part II The Fascination of Paradox: The Pre-Raphaelite challenge: A kindred simplicity: the search for an expressive language of art; Early Pre-Raphaelite work: Giottesque or grotesque?; A step too far: the signal for a perfect crusade against the PRB; Reading The Carpenter's Shop: a gesture of defiance; Part III The Making of William Holman Hunt as the Painter of Christ: Reconfiguring Christ: history, biography, myth; Illustrating the Bible: a context for Hunt's pictorial concerns; Private motivations: suppressing the religious experience; Public narratives: work, art and the figure of Christ as hero; Experiencing the East; Finding the Saviour, at last; The success of the Saviour: a contemporary reaffirmation of faith; The spheres of art and religion; Epilogue: Ideal subjects glowing with poetry; Notes; Bibliography; Index.