Scenes and Traces of the English Civil War

Description

The English Civil War has become a frequent point of reference in contemporary political debate. A bitter and bloody series of conflicts, it shook the very foundations of seventeenth-century Britain. This is the first attempt to portray the visual legacy of this period, as passed down, revisited and periodically reworked over two and a half centuries of subsequent English history. Highly regarded art historian Stephen Bann deftly interprets the mass of visual evidence accessible today, from ornate tombs and statues to surviving sites of vandalism and iconoclasm, public signage and historical paintings of subjects, events and places.

Stephen Bann CBE is Emeritus Professor of History of Art and Senior Research Fellow at Bristol University. His recent books include Distinguished Images: Prints in the Visual Economy of Nineteenth-Century France (2013) and Stonypath Days: Letters between Ian Hamilton Finlay and Stephen Bann 1970-72 (2016).

"This book is the product of subtle reasoning and considerable scholarship, dealing not with great art but with a rich seam of visual culture. What emerges from this study is how deeply an awareness of the violent reversals of fortune, caused by this war, entered the English psyche, and how continuing operations of memory have ensured its role within the making of an historical national identity."--Frances Spalding, CBE, FRSL "This is the mature work of a master scholar, superbly researched and written and pioneering a new field."--Ronald E. Hutton, FBA, Professor of History at the University of Bristol