Angels of History - Pre-Raphaelite Sisters Reimagining the Italian Renaissance

PhD defence by Therese Stougård

Assessment Committee

Lektor Jens Hesselager, Institut for Kunst- og Kulturvidenskab, University of Copenhagen (Chairperson)
Professor Catherine Delyfer, Université Jean Jaurès
Professor emerita Hilary Fraser, Birkbeck College, University of London

Supervisors

Professor Maria Fabricius Hansen
Professor Lene Østermark-Johansen

Department

Department of Arts and Cultural Studies

Place

Building: 21, Room: 21-0-54, Karen Blixens Vej 1, 2300 København S

Email address to gain access to the thesis: ths@hum.ku.dk.
You will either receive a copy of the thesis or be informed where you can read a physical copy.

Recipients of copies of the thesis are not allowed to share or distribute it due to copyright compliance.

Short description of the thesis

The Italian Renaissance occupied a central place in the artistic imagination of late Victorian and Edwardian Britain. Through close readings of selected works by three Pre-Raphaelite painters, Marie Spartali Stillman (1844-1927), Evelyn De Morgan (1855-1919), and Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale (1872-1945), Therese Stougård's PhD thesis, 'Angels of History: Pre-Raphaelite Sisters Reimagining the Italian Renaissance,' examines how Renaissance art was imitated and reimagined. Structured around thematic analyses, the dissertation focuses on the revival of the hortus conclusus, on the Venetian 'bella donna', and the Florentine profile portrait, respectively. It argues that the artists' imitation of Renaissance art was not simply an attempt to recreate Renaissance visual ideals and aesthetic conventions, but rather a form of cultural critique addressing contemporary artistic and cultural concerns.