Under the Hammer: Iconoclasm in the Anglo-American Tradition (Clarendon Lectures in English Literature) PDF
Preview Under the Hammer: Iconoclasm in the Anglo-American Tradition (Clarendon Lectures in English Literature)
UNDER THE HAMMER the clarendon lectures in english 2009 Frontispiece:BarnettNewman,BrokenObelisk(1967),inSecondFloor, PublicSpace,TheDonaldB.andCatherineC.MarronAtrium,TheDavid andPeggyRockefellerBuilding,MuseumofModernArt,NewYork. Reproducedbypermissionq2009TheBarnettNewmanFoundation, NewYork/ArtistsRightsSociety(ARS),NewYork. UNDER THE HAMMER Iconoclasm in the Anglo-American Tradition * JAMES SIMPSON 1 3 GreatClarendonStreet,Oxfordox26dp OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwidein Oxford NewYork Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto Withofficesin Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress intheUKandincertainothercountries PublishedintheUnitedStates byOxfordUniversityPressInc.,NewYork qJamesSimpson2010 Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted DatabaserightOxfordUniversityPress(maker) Firstpublished2010 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, withoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress, orasexpresslypermittedbylaw,orundertermsagreedwiththeappropriate reprographicsrightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproduction outsidethescopeoftheaboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment, OxfordUniversityPress,attheaddressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisbookinanyotherbindingorcover andyoumustimposethesameconditiononanyacquirer BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData Dataavailable TypesetbySPIPublisherServices,Pondicherry,India PrintedinGreatBritain onacid–freepaperby ClaysLtd,StIvesplc ISBN 978–0–19–959165–7 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Idedicatethisbook,withloveand admiration,tomychildrenEmile, Olivier,andCleliaSimpson cknowledgements A A confession: throughout the deeply pleasurable, not to say ex- hilaratingprocessofwritingthisbook,Idevelopedatasteforthe illicit. All but one of the following chapters is an act of breaking and entering academic shops not my own. I can only hope that my readers will also experience the frisson of transgression I enjoyed, although of course they may be provoked every now and again, when they feel I have strayed too far, to phone the police. Booksaretheproductandsourceofconversation.Theconver- sationthat beganthisbookwasover breakfastwiththeinspiring Andrew McNeillie, who invited me to deliver the Clarendon Lectures, under the auspices of both Oxford University Press and the Faculty of English, University of Oxford, in May 2009. The two weeks I spent in Oxford were unquestionably the most pleasurable of an academic life, thanks in no small part to the hospitalityofSallyMapstoneandVincentGillespie. Many friends, colleagues, and students have tried to keep me onthestraightandnarrow,for whichIofferthewarmestthanks. The following were especially generous: Amy Appleford, Tim Bahti, Larry Buell, Ian Donaldson, Milad Douehi, Philip Fisher, Jorie Graham,GraziaGunn,NicholasHalmi,JeffreyHamburger, AnnaHuber,JasonLaFountain,BarbaraLewalski,NinaLu¨bbren, LukeMenand, Carl Schmidt,PeterSacks,Daniel Shore,Nicholas Watson, and Nicolette Zeeman, who first started me thinking about iconoclasm. Many of these interlocutors and friends are colleagues in the Department of English, Harvard University, whose collective intellectual ambition and warmth of intellectual friendshipnourishedthebookateveryturn.Dozensofgraduatesin Acknowledgements vii thisdepartmentenlivenedmythinking.Idonotmeantoenlistthe colleaguesherenamedassupportersofthepositionstakeninthis book: many are not. Neither is Richard Strier, of the University of Chicago, who nonetheless provided the most tenacious and exacting opposition I have ever encountered in academic debate. Mythankstohimareverywarmindeed. My wife and daughter, Luisella and Clelia Simpson, both offeredpenetratingcommentatdifferentmoments. NicoleMillercourageouslyandsuccessfullyundertookHercu- leantasksateveryleveloftheproject.Mydebttoherisverylarge. The librarians of the Lamont Library, Harvard University, gave detailedhelpwiththebibliography. I completed the notes to this book in the magnificent Biblio- teca Berenson of the Villa I Tatti, thanks to the warm and humane hospitality of its Director, Joseph Connors, and his wife,Franc¸oise. This page intentionally left blank ontents C ListofIllustrations x ListofAbbreviations xiii Introduction 1 1. Iconoclasm in Melbourne, Massachusetts, and the MuseumofModernArt 18 2. Learn to Die: Late Medieval English Images before theLaw 49 3. Statues of Liberty: Iconoclasm and Idolatry in the EnglishRevolution 85 4. UndertheHammer:IconoclasmandtheEnlightenment 116 Conclusion 155 Notes 159 Bibliography 196 Index 209
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