Hunter 2010

Hunter, Michael, ed. Printed Images in Early Modern Britain: Essays in Interpretation. Burlington: Ashgate, 2010.

Symbols of Conversion: Properties of the Page in Reformation England, by Margaret Aston (23-42)

Great Bible (1539) depicts God -- Cranmer and Henry VIII did not agree on this issue, Cranmer did not want to depict God

Bishop's Bible (1568), Archbishop Parker uses Continental woodcuts, some of which depict God (he changed some to tetragrammaton, not others) -- sparked puritan protest

"Certainly, in its orgnamental form, placed at the top of title-pages, there could be no dout that the four-letter symbol was an emblematic blazon of new orthodoxy." (30)

IHS, holy monogram, adopted by Society of Jesus in the sixteenth century

"Thanks to the Jesuits' appropriation and adaptation of this device, the IHS became a malign emblem for those who were themselves militant in opposing all aspirations of Rome." (30)

yet churches still included the IHS monogram on its furnishings; Little Gidding used it

John Cosin, A Collection of Private Devotions or the Houres of prayer (1627); "intended to help Protestant ladies at the English court prove their devotion alongside the Catholic ladies-in-waiting of the queen" (30); had IHS at the top, instead of tetragram

"The imagery of a title-page, intended to be a guide to the devotional content of the work it prefaces, could equally well be read as an advertisement of poison." (33)

Guides to Godliness: From Print to Plaster, by Tara Hamling (65-85)

"a significant amoung of the iconography depicted in domestic decoration from the first half of the seventeenth century is copied from the illustrated title-pages of Protestant books, including the best-selling guides to 'godly' behaviour offering advice on approved religious practices and habits of thought" (65)

direct connection between conduct literature and Protestant household decorations, functions 1) as reminder, 2) as regulation, 3) to prompt pious meditation (65)

manor house in East Quantoxhead, decorative overmantels in high relief, copied from images in Vita, Passio, et Resurrectio Jesu Christi, published in Antwerp by Adriaen Collaert in 1566 (66)

decorated by husband for his wife; he dies, wife remarries, her new husband leaves her in his will a copy of The Practise of Pietie, by Lewis Bayly

"Two husbands attempted to impose spiritual concerns on Silvestra, one through religious art and the other through prescriptive literature. In doing so, these husbands were fulfilling the role of Protestant patriarch." (67)

trend of religious decoration in homes in late 16, early 17c; "traditional religious iconography remained an important, and highly visible, part of reformed culture" (68)

images could be used in homes because unlikely chance of idolatrous worship

"It can be no coincidence that, running parallel with this fashion for large-scale religious art in domestic decoration, was an increased emphasis on, and formalising of, religious practices within the home in order to propagate the newly established Protestant faith. In the century following the Protestant ascendancy in Britain, theologians consistently defined the home, not the church, as the central unit in fostering the reformed faith." (69)

Christian prayers and meditations (1569), revised as A Booke of christian prayers (1578)

• Protestant book of hours
• included religious illustrations
• "In this way, the book served to preserve and circulate traditional pre-Reformation religious iconography long after it had been banished from the walls of churches."

devotional literature used to created carved / plaster work on chimneys

"It seems likely taht patrons would have considered these title-pages alongside, and as an index to, the contents of the book." Copying such imagery indicates that the patron approved of the book to the extent that it was desirable to transfer its imagery to the more visible and public arena of the household." (71)

prescriptive conduct books recommended gathering the household together for prayers every morning and evening (72)

previously worship was done in formal setting of the chapel/church; images help bring some of that formality into the home worship setting (72-3)

overmantel circa 1635 that remixs two printed sources, one continental, the other from and English bible (76)

"Paper Tapestry" and "Wooden Pictures": Printed Decoration in the Domestic Interior before 1700, by Gill Saunders (317-335)

two letters of 1699, describing printed paper hangings -- like a "paper tapestry," "managed like woollen Hangings" (qtd on 318)

early wallpapers thought to be patterns for embroidery and blackwork (319); unclear if they served a dual purpose, of textiles inspired the wallpaper, etc. (320)

linen printed with an embroidery pattern (323)

wallpaper prints that look like blackwork actually postdate the trend for blackwork, which was overy by about 1630; wallpapers may have been inspired by blackwork embroidery, rather than the other way around (326)

• e.g. see lining paper of 1670

wallpaper looks like pictorial embroidery (see 331)

"I am confident that seventeenth-century wallpapers were designed, sold, purchased and used first and foremost as substitutes for various textile wall coverings and, to this end, were designed to imitate as closely as posible their appearance, texture, motifs and so on." (330)

"I believe that wallpapers had no significant role as patterns for embroiderers" (330)