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Pressly relates the paintings to Zoffany's status as a German-born Catholic living in Protestant England and to Zoffany's vision of revolutionary justice and the role played by the sansculottes, women, and blacks. He also examines the religious dimension in Zoffany's paintings, showing how they broke new ground by conveying Christian themes in a radically new format. Art historians will find Pressly's book of immense value, as will cultural historians interested in religion, gender, and race.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49675953832209,"sku":"CIN0520211960VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51484417589521,"sku":"GOR014299274","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0520211960.jpg?v=1751391755"},{"product_id":"catalogue-of-paintings-in-the-folger-shakespeare-library-book-william-l-pressly-9780300052145","title":"A Catalogue of Paintings in the Folger Shakespeare Library","description":"The Folger Shakespeare Library is said to contain the finest collection of Shakespearean art ever assembled. This catalogue of the collection traces the development of literary painting, of Shakespearean criticism and portraiture and changes in approach to stagecraft.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50465094140177,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50465095123217,"sku":"CIN0300052146G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0300052146.jpg?v=1751324413"},{"product_id":"life-and-art-of-james-barry-book-william-l-pressly-9780300024661","title":"The Life and Art of James Barry","description":"This book is the first modern study of James Barry, the finest of all British painters in the “grand manner.” Born in Cork, Barry settles in London in 1771 after five years of study in France and Italy financed by Edmund Burke.  He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1773 and appointed professor of painting nine years later.  In 1799, however, after fiercely denouncing its policies, he became the first and only artist to be expelled from the Academy.  His paintings include several that rank with the nest contemporary work, and his murals at the Royal Society of Arts form perhaps the most important cycle of history paintings in Great Britain.  Although history painting was theoretically the most exalted of artistic genres, it had traditionally received little support in England, where portraiture and landscape dominated.  In the face of indifferent patronage, Barry struggles to establish an art worthy of the noble heritage of classical Greece and Renaissance Italy.  He passionately believed in art’s mission to instruct, and to this end he saw himself as an embattled spokesman for social, political and religious reform. William Pressly reveals the degree to which Barry’s view of his role shaped the character of his art and examines how his works, through rooted in traditional sources, creatively depart in both form and content from conventional academic practice.  He also assesses the artist as a portrait painter, including his use of portraiture within the context of historical subjects, and as one of the few late eighteenth-century British painters to work as an original printmaker.  The book contains the first complete catalogue of Barry’s paintings and of his surviving drawings and prints. William L. Pressly is associate professor of the history of art at Yale University. Published for the Paul Mellon Center for Studies in British Art.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50853795135761,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50853795299601,"sku":"GOR009628946","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52939553145105,"sku":"GOR014661169","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0300024665.jpg?v=1750812777"},{"product_id":"james-barry-1741-1806-history-painter-book-tom-dunne-9780754666349","title":"James Barry, 1741-1806: History Painter","description":"Bringing into relief the singularity of Barry's unswerving commitment to his vision for history painting despite adverse cultural, political and commercial currents, these essays on Barry and his contemporaries offer new perspectives on the painter's life and career.  Contributors, including some of the best known experts in the field of British eighteenth-century studies, set Barry's works and writings into a rich political and social context, particularly in Britain.   Among other notable achievements, the essays shed new light on the influence which Barry's radical ideology and his Catholicism had on his art; they explore his relationship with Reynolds and Blake, and discuss his aesthetics in the context of Burke and Wollstonecraft as well as Fuseli and Payne Knight.  The volume is an indispensable resource for scholars of eighteenth-century British painting, patronage, aesthetics, and political history.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50937645236497,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50937648120081,"sku":"GOR013275254","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0754666344.jpg?v=1751264043"},{"product_id":"james-barry-s-murals-at-the-royal-society-of-arts-book-william-l-pressly-9781782051084","title":"James Barry's Murals at the Royal Society of Arts","description":"Between 1777 and 1784, the Irish artist James Barry (1741-1806) executed six murals for the Great Room of the [Royal] Society of Arts in London.  Although his works form the most impressive series of history paintings in Great Britain, they remain one of the British art world's best kept secrets, having attracted little attention from critics or the general public. James Barry's Murals at the Royal Society of Arts is the first to offer an in-depth analysis of these remarkable paintings and the first to demonstrate that the artist was pioneering a new approach to public art in terms of the novelty of the patronage and the highly personal nature of his content.  Barry insisted on, and received, complete control over his subject matter, the first time in the history of Western art that the patron of a large, impressive interior agreed to such a demand.  The artist required autonomy in order to present his personal vision, which encompasses a rich and complex surface narrative as well as a hidden meaning that has gone unperceived for 230 years.  The artist disguised his deeper message due to its inflammatory nature. Were his meaning readily apparent, the Society would have thrown out him and his murals. Ultimately, as this book seeks to show, the artist intended his paintings to engage the public in a dialogue that would utterly transform British society in terms of its culture, politics, and religion.  In making this case, the book brings this neglected series into the mainstream of discussions of British art of the Romantic period, revealing the intellectual profundity invested in the genre of history painting and re-evaluating the role Christianity played in Enlightenment thought.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52498323144977,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52498323177745,"sku":"NIN9781782051084","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781782051084.jpg?v=1760086531"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/author-books-by-william-l-pressly.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}