W.W. Norton & Company
1961
ISBN: N/A
English
128 pages
PDF


In this famous study never before available in book form, Rensselaer Lee defines the doctrine of ut pictura poesis ("As is painting, so is poetry") and traces its development and changing fortunes between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries. The theory of painting during this period, as developed by artists and humanist writers on art, was based on the fundamental assumption that good painting, like good poetry, is the ideal imitation of human action. It must express general truth through universally known subjects, must deploy a wide variety of emotions, and must seek to instruct as well as to please. This doctrine, based on the literary theories of Aristotle and Horace, was prevalent from the Renaissance through the Mannerist and Baroque periods, during which the subject matter of painting drew largely for its inspiration upon the great literature of past and present.

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