Art patronage and court influence, 1660-1714

本文将探讨斯图亚特王朝后期宫廷对艺术赞助的影响。通过对个人、夫妇和一个与法院有关或有联系的俱乐部的一系列案例研究，它将试图了解法院、公共和私人领域如何在委托和收集视觉艺术（包括绘画、建筑和室内设计）方面相互作用。考虑到风格、时尚和新兴的“品味”概念的问题，它将采取跨学科的方法，超越艺术史，探索艺术与政治之间的联系，并询问在这一重大动荡时期，艺术赞助在多大程度上反映了政治权力的转变。直到2012年，艺术史学家还认为斯图亚特王朝后期的赞助是一个衰落时期。新的学术研究，包括詹姆斯·温恩对安妮女王赞助的传记调查、泰特研究项目和相关出版物《宫廷、乡村、城市》，以及大卫·索尔金的《1660-1815年的英国艺术》，都展示了斯图尔特后期艺术的活力，将它们融入了政治、社会和文化背景。然而，需要对艺术赞助进行更多的研究，特别是法院影响的问题。随着权力的中心从宫廷转移，赞助人是否也会随之转移？海伦·雅各布森（Helen Jacobsen）的《奢侈与权力》（Luxury and Power）调查了外交官的庇护，以及他们将炫耀和鉴赏作为一种政治工具的使用，但仅限于这一群体。有许多关于个人赞助人、流派和建筑的详细调查，但这些要么是单一学科，要么只关注一个人或一个时期。艺术赞助也与风格、时尚、鉴赏力和美学哲学密切相关。V&A博物馆2009年的展览《巴洛克：华丽时代的风格》挑战了巴洛克与反宗教改革或专制主义的联系，并将其定义为一种华丽而富有表现力的风格。尽管如此，有人认为，与道德优越感相关的新兴品味概念，以及以猫猫俱乐部为代表的另一种更民主的审美，在文化和政治上都对法院的领导构成了挑战。这篇论文将调查斯图亚特王朝后期的法院对与法院相关的关键人物的艺术赞助的影响程度。借鉴网络理论，它将考虑在法院、国家、议会、政党和私人利益的重叠领域中，庇护是如何行使的，并将质疑这揭示了权力的所在地和行使。考虑到艺术风格和美学理论，它将质疑，在这一时期，权力从天主教和专制主义倾向的君主制转移到更加精英化的贵族和议会，是否与宫廷作为灵感来源和品味仲裁者的角色变化同时发生。本论文将使用选定的案例研究来实现时间段和相应法院的广泛代表性；男人和女人；政治派别的；出身高贵和普通的。在每个案例研究中询问的特定问题将通过对政治权力和艺术赞助之间关系的共同分析集中在一起。解决视觉艺术，主要是绘画，雕塑，建筑，室内装饰和家具，它将使用通信，库存，当代账户和出版物，以及艺术品本身，以确定不仅是什么艺术委托和收集，但如何和为什么。泰特在合作博士伙伴计划下共同监督，为这篇论文所进行的研究也将为即将在泰特英国展出的“英国巴洛克，1660-1714”做出贡献。

This thesis will investigate the influence of the court on art patronage in the later Stuart period. Through a series of case studies of individuals, couples and one club, associated with or linked to the court, it will seek to understand how court, public and private spheres interacted in the commissioning and collecting of the visual arts, including painting, architecture and interiors. Taking into consideration questions of style, fashion, and the emerging concept of 'taste', it will take an interdisciplinary approach to look beyond art history to the nexus between art and politics, and ask how far artistic patronage reflected a shift in political power in this period of significant upheaval. Art historians as recently as 2012 have considered the patronage of the later Stuart courts as a period of decline. New scholarship, including James Winn's biographical survey of Queen Anne's patronage, the Tate research project and associated publication Court, Country, City, and David Solkin's Art in Britain 1660-1815 have demonstrated the vitality of the arts in the later Stuart period, integrating them into their political, social and cultural context. However, more research is needed into art patronage, specifically, the question of court influence. As the locus of power shifted away from the court, did patronage follow suit? Helen Jacobsen's Luxury and Power, surveys the patronage of diplomats and their use of display and connoisseurship as a political tool, but is restricted to this one group. Many detailed surveys of individual patrons, genres and buildings exist but these are either single discipline, or focus on one individual or period only. Art patronage is also intimately linked to questions of style, fashion, connoisseurship and aesthetic philosophy. The V&A's 2009 exhibition Baroque: Style in the Age of Magnificence challenged the association of Baroque with the Counter-Reformation or absolutism and defined it as a style of magnificence and expressiveness. Nevertheless, it has been argued that the emerging notion of taste, with its associations of moral superiority, and an alternative, more democratic aesthetic, exemplified by the Kit-Cat club, mounted a challenge to the leadership of the court, both culturally and politically. This thesis will investigate the degree of influence exercised by the later Stuart courts on the art patronage of key individuals associated with the court. Drawing on network theory, it will consider how patronage was exercised in the overlapping spheres of court, country, parliament, party and private interests, and will question what this reveals about the locus and exercise of power. Considering artistic style and aesthetic theory, it will question whether the transfer of power during this period from a Catholic- and absolutist-leaning monarchy, to a more meritocratic aristocracy and parliament, was paralleled by a change in the role of the court as a source of inspiration and arbiter of taste. This thesis will use case studies selected to achieve a broad representation of time periods and corresponding courts; of men and women; of political affiliations; of noble and ordinary birth. The particular issues interrogated in each case study will be brought together by a common analytical focus on the relationship between political power and art patronage. Addressing the visual arts, principally painting, sculpture, architecture, interior decoration and furnishing, it will use correspondence, inventories, contemporary accounts and publications, and the artworks themselves to identify not only what art was commissioned and collected, but how and why. Co-supervised by Tate under the Collaborative Doctoral Partnership scheme, the research undertaken for this thesis will also contribute to the forthcoming exhibition at Tate Britain, 'English Baroque, 1660-1714'.