Synopses & Reviews
Review
"Modern archaeological studies have tended to show that popular conceptions about famous monuments of ancient Britain like Stonehenge are false. But that does not mean that these ideas, which can generally be traced back to the 18th century, did not have a powerful shaping influence on British culture. In this book, Smiles goes on an archaeological expedition of his own, digging into, not the British soil, but the British archive, and uncovering many unexpected treasures. He shows how antiquarians of the 18th and 19th centuries gradually constructed an image of the ancient British past, and how this image influenced artists and writers, especially among the Romantics, who in turn contributed to the shaping of Great Britain's sense of its history. In the process, Smiles shows how many important cultural phenomena, which might at first seem unrelated, are in fact tied together by a common concern for ancient Britain: the Ossianic poems, Blake's Jerusalem, John Martin's paintings, even Bellini's opera Norma. As befits a volume published by the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art, the book is well illustrated, though
one might wish that some of the illustrations were in color." Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)
Synopsis
How was the remote past of Britain imagined in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries? What part did the visual arts play in that process? In this book Sam Smiles argues that the ancient Britain of the romantic imagination was a contested world, variously seen as a noble epoch of wisdom and patriotism and as a period of unredeemed savagery and barbarism. The arts, says Smiles, not only reflected these historical debates but actively contributed to them by attempting to bring the archaic past to life.
Smiles examines the interplay of antiquarian research, historiography, and the visual arts in constructing an image of Britain from prehistoric times to the arrival of the Saxons. He discusses such topics as the lengthening of prehistoric time in the contemporary view, the status of antiquarian learning, and the celebration of ancestral peoples as an offshoot of the growing sense of national identity. He describes the Celtic revival during the late eighteenth century, with its iconography that fashioned a pictorial repertoire for megaliths, bards, Druids, and the patriotic leaders Boadicea and Caractacus, who fought off the Romans. He also explains why the Victorians downgraded the Celts and replaced them with the Saxons, preferred by Victorians because they were Christians, because they were English (rather than British), and because they had established organized kingdoms.
Illustrated with images from a wide range of sources, this is the first major interdisciplinary examination of the British image of antiquity that has a particular significance for art historians and historians alike.
Published for the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art
Synopsis
The antiquarians and artists of the 18th and 19th centuries had an important influence on modern ideas surrounding Ancient Britain, and the way that it is popularly pictured. Whilst many of their ideas have been superseded by modern archaeological excavation many of their myths and images, particularly that of the Druid, survive today. This study, subtitled Ancient Britain and the Romantic magination', examines the interplay between antiquarian research, historiography and the visual arts in constructing an image of Britain from prehistoric times to the arrival of the Saxons. Smiles discusses changing concepts of British antiquity and of cultural origins, the status of antiquarian research and the celebration of barbarian ancestors in northern Europe. An important book synthesising early modern responses to the ancient past.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 238-247) and index.