
Heaven and the Flesh
Imagery of Desire from the Renaissance to the Rococo
Cambridge University Press
Published on 7. December 1995
Book
Hardback
254 pages
978-0-521-49571-4 (ISBN)
Description
Do angels make love? Will the souls of ordinary people feel sexual pleasure in the next world? Is the aspiration to spiritual salvation helped or hindered by sexual experience? In Heaven and the Flesh Clive Hart and Kay Stevenson explore the opinions of poets and painters on such questions, from the high Renaissance to the birth of romanticism. Hart and Stevenson analyse the work not only of canonical writers and artists, such as Milton and Michelangelo, but also of lesser-known figures such as John Gore and Richard Tompson, and the sometimes anguished speculations of philosophers and theologians. As the evidence of witty pornographic poems and drawings demonstrates, the relationship between sexual desire and spiritual ascension was not always treated with full seriousness. This wide-ranging survey offers sometimes surprising insights into material both familiar and unfamiliar.
Reviews / Votes
"...a fresh perspective on religious imagery (both visual and verbal)....a lucid interweaving of Milton and Caravaggio with frankly pornographic poetry and book illustrations. Hart and Stevenson should be commended for their unabashed discussion of sexualized religious imagery....an extremely refreshing presentation..." Choice "Among the handsomest book of the season is Heaven and the Flesh: Imagery of Desire from the Renaissance to the Rococo, by Clive Hart and Kay Gilliland Stevenson." Studies in English LiteratureMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
College/higher education
Illustrations
50 Halftones, unspecified
Dimensions
Height: 260 mm
Width: 183 mm
Thickness: 18 mm
Weight
679 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-521-49571-4 (9780521495714)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Content
1. Sexuality and ascension - finding the way; 2. The woman on top - Christ, Endymion, Ganymede; 3. Paradisiacal bosoms; 4. Imparadised in one another's arms; 5. Heaven and the flesh; 6. The body and ascension in the sacred rococo art of southern Germany and Austria; 7. The assumption and its transformations; 8. Conclusion - Jacob's ladder and Keats's Endymion; Appendix.