Utmost Art

George Herbert has always been regarded as a man of singular piety and a poet of uncommon technical ability. Until recent times, however, he was usually thought to have written prosodically ingenious but conceptually thin verse. Mary Ellen Rickey, through a close examination of Herbert's poetry, reveals the high concentration of ideas in his verse and the richness of his imagery.

This study is concerned with Early Modern English psalm translations. It focusses on the connection between inspiration and formal perfection as it appears in George Wither's "A Preparation to the Psalter", Philip Sidney's "The Defence of Poesy", "The Sidney Psalter" and "The Bay Psalm Book". Taking into account theological, philosophical, and literary contexts of the time, it reveals the struggle to find a suitable language in praise of God as a main concern of Early Modern religious writers, and presents concepts which are highly relevant for the religious poetry of the time. Dissertation. (Series: Religion and Literature / Religion und Literatur, Vol. 5) [Subject: Religious Studies]

From the simple assertion that "words matter" in the study of visual art, this comprehensive but eminently readable volume gathers an extraordinary selection of words—painters and sculptors writing in their diaries, critics responding to a sensational exhibition, groups of artists issuing stylistic manifestos, and poets reflecting on particular works of art. Along with a broad array of canonical texts, Sarah Burns and John Davis have assembled an astonishing variety of unknown, little known, or undervalued documents to convey the story of American art through the many voices of its contemporary practitioners, consumers, and commentators. American Art to 1900 highlights such critically important themes as women artists, African American representation and expression, regional and itinerant artists, Native Americans and the frontier, popular culture and vernacular imagery, institutional history, and more. With its hundreds of explanatory headnotes providing essential context and guidance to readers, this book reveals the documentary riches of American art and its many intersecting histories in unprecedented breadth, depth, and detail.