The Scandal of Images: Iconoclasm, Eroticism, and Painting in Early Modern English DramaIn Elizabethan England, dramatists and painters were both achieving the greatest degree of artistic excellence yet witnessed, but they were also in a state of transition, vying for social status and patronage, as well as struggling against religious reformers' accusations of idolatry and eroticism. This interdisciplinary study brings to light the radical, inventive ways in which dramatists such as Shakespeare, Lyly, and Marston appropriated painting and subtly competed with painters to advance their own art and defend theater against Puritan attacks. They transformed painting into a provocative stage property and trope that enhanced the language of their scripts and the audience's imaginative participation in the drama. At the same time, they reflected a profound ambivalence towards painting by staging scenes with painters and pictures that emphasized the dangerous powers inherent in visual images and image-making. |
Contents
| 29 | |
John Lylys Campaspe and the Subtle Eroticism of the Elizabethan Miniature | 66 |
Dramatic Uses of Portrait Properties and FacePainting in the Boys Theater at St Pauls | 98 |
Scandalous Counterfeiting Iconophobia Poison and Painting in Arden of Faversham | 130 |
Stretch thine art Painting Passions Revenge and the Painter Addition to The Spanish Tragedy | 152 |
Images Lawful and Beguiling Ambivalent Responses to Painting in Shakespeares Drama | 178 |
Notes | 216 |
| 239 | |
| 253 | |
Common terms and phrases
actor Alexander Alice ambivalence Antonio and Mellida Apelles appears Arden of Faversham argues artist audience Balurdo beauty Cambridge Campaspe Campaspe's character Children of Paul's claims colors counterfeit court courtly crucifix depicted drama dramatists E. K. Chambers Earl early modern England ekphrasis Elizabethan emotional English erotic eroticism eyes face face-painting false figure gaze Hamlet Hieronimo Ibid iconic iconoclastic idol idolatry image-making imagination imitation John Lyly Lassingbergh Leontes Limning London lovers Lucilia Lyly's Marston's metaphor miniature moral Mosby murder nature Nicholas Hilliard onstage painted images painter Painter Addition Painter scene painting trope painting's paragone passions Paul's perceived performance play's players Poet poetry poison portrait praise present Queen refers reflects reformers religious Renaissance representation response revenge rhetorical scandal secular shadow Shakespeare skill social Spanish Tragedy speaking picture spectators stage status theater theatrical Thomas Timon Timon of Athens tion trope University Press Venus verbal viewer visual art woman words