William Etty’s Magdalens
Sexual Desire and Spirituality in Early Victorian England
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12445598 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Dominic Janes (0000-0003-3751-5326, Universidad de Londres, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2011 |
| Volume | 15 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 277-305 |
| Publication date | 2011-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Religion and the Arts (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1079-9265 • E-ISSN: 1568-5292 |
| Publisher | Brill (PUBLISHER • NL) |
| DOI | 10.1163/156852911x567824 |
| OpenAlex | W1991318258 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 10 |
William Etty (1787-1849) is widely recognized as one of Britain"s pre-eminent painters of the nude. However, his reputation has suffered as a result of the moral disapproval that often greeted his work. Much of the academic discussion of his work has focused on attempting to rehabilitate him as a serious artist. In this essay I take a different approach by arguing that debate cannot be most usefully advanced by presenting as critical alternatives the notions that Etty"s work should be seen as either morally superior to, or as fatally implicated in, practices of pornographic viewing and production. By focusing on a series of his later works that illustrate his increasing interest in Catholic visual and material culture, notably those depicting the penitent Mary Magdalen, this essay argues that the religious and the erotic in his work should not be seen as incompatible phenomena. Rather, Etty should be regarded as an exponent of nineteenth-century attempts to create contexts of erotic desire that were also morally pure
Art · Art history · Brill · Human sexuality · Painting · Reputation · Sexual desire · Social science · Sociology · Spirituality · The arts · Visual arts · Classics · Gender Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Literature: history, themes, analysis · Philosophy · Religious studies · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |