1 research outputs found
A translation of a translation: Dissemination of the Arundel Society’s chromolithographs
The thesis casts new light on the activities of the London-based
Arundel Society (1848–1897). It examines the watercolours and
chromolithographs produced for the Society made after
pre-Renaissance frescoes and Northern altarpieces, the discourse
around them, and the ways the prints were collected by
organisations and individual subscribers. The Society’s
commercial and ideological strategies, its didactic and archival
programs, as well as the multi-faceted nature of its authorship
are analysed. Using the notion of translation, this thesis
explores how mediation affects the reception and meaning of a
work of art.
The Arundel Society, or Society for Promoting the Knowledge of
Art, was one of the first entities to issue high-quality colour
reproductions of works of art. Through an investigation of the
impact of these colour images on art writing, and the ways in
which they helped give visual form to ideas about art, this
thesis proposes new value for the Society’s publications. The
prints, sculptural casts and texts issued over fifty years were
an important contribution to art history in a period when the
discipline was developing; they were distributed around the
world, bringing popular awareness to the art of earlier times. By
examining subscriber lists and exploring the connections between
the Society’s members, this thesis demonstrates the ubiquity of
the chromolithographs. By considering the prints in a range of
domestic and religious spheres, within museums and other
institutional contexts, the thesis challenges the idea that
reproductive prints are by nature unilateral and poses further
complexities about the original, its image and the viewer—it
asks questions about what happens if works of art look back.
This thesis is the first to examine the Arundel Society’s
contribution to a nascent art history and only the second, since
Tanya Ledger’s more than forty years ago, to assess its
activities in depth. Initially the Society aimed to record and
spread knowledge of important monuments. Later it placed greater
emphasis on recording works of art to which general access was
difficult, and those threatened by decay or destruction; the
function of the watercolours and prints as a ‘condition
report’ was recognised at the time. In 1860s and 1870s, at the
height of the Society’s popularity, the chromolithographs were
also used as home furnishings, while in various churches they
remain as items for devotion. By surveying extant holdings, this
thesis assesses the role of the Society’s publications in the
development of museum collections in Britain, the colonies and
further afield, and reconsiders the possibilities for these works
in the twenty-first century