British Academy: The UK's National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences
BA PDF Symposium 200626 April 2006 AbstractsDr Tara HamlingDecorating the 'Godly' Household: Religious Imagery in the Protestant Domestic Interior, c.1560-c.1660In the approximate period between 1560 and 1660, it was common for large-scale religious imagery to be depicted within the interior decoration of larger houses throughout England and Scotland. This widespread fashion for religious imagery within the decorative arts is surprising given the ongoing controversy surrounding the status and role of imagery in Protestant culture, especially given that some of the patrons can be identified as being towards the Puritan end of the religious spectrum. The aim of the paper is twofold. First, to identify the kind of religious imagery depicted within the Protestant domestic interior, in terms of both iconography and media. Second, to discuss the possible functions that this imagery might serve. I will argue that religious iconography in interior decoration should be understood within the context of what has been termed the 'spiritualisation of the household', that is, an emphasis on household religion, particularly within Godly society. I will suggest that the imagery served three interconnected functions within the practice of Protestant piety; (i) as the setting for collective religious observance (ii) to regulate behaviour (iii) as spiritual reminders. Dr Hamling is a member of the Art History Department at the University of Sussex. She is currently completing the manuscript for a monograph based on her postdoctoral research project, provisionally entitled; Decorating the 'Godly' Household: Religious Imagery in the Protestant Domestic Interior, c.1560-c.1660. She is also co-editor (with Dr Richard L. Williams) of an edited volume of essays; Art Re-formed: Re-assessing the Impact of the Reformation on the Visual Arts, to be published by Cambridge Scholars Press in 2007.
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