The painter James Barry, who prided himself to know Edmund Burke’s famous "Enquiry on the Sublime and the Beautiful" by heart, considered Italy the final destination to complete the training started in London under James “Athenian” Stuart. Burke made it possible, financing both the training and the travel. My contribution focuses on what I consider to be the critical phase in Barry’s Bildung as an artist, not only because the direct experience with what remained of the ancient world proved key to his art, but more because Barry’s agon with the ancient symbolically reveals an attempt to negotiate his identity with ghosts of fatherly figures far more real and close than the classics.
The Compulsion of James Barry for Antiquity
NIEDDA D
2015-01-01
Abstract
The painter James Barry, who prided himself to know Edmund Burke’s famous "Enquiry on the Sublime and the Beautiful" by heart, considered Italy the final destination to complete the training started in London under James “Athenian” Stuart. Burke made it possible, financing both the training and the travel. My contribution focuses on what I consider to be the critical phase in Barry’s Bildung as an artist, not only because the direct experience with what remained of the ancient world proved key to his art, but more because Barry’s agon with the ancient symbolically reveals an attempt to negotiate his identity with ghosts of fatherly figures far more real and close than the classics.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
