The composing of images: an analysis and comparison of procedure in some images from John Milton's Paradise Lost and selected paintings of Nicolas Poussin

Abstract

The topic of the thesis is the affinity between the seventeenth-century English poet John Milton and a contemporary French painter, Nicolas Poussin. The comparison is based on an analysis of similar procedures in the composing of some images from Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost, and selected paintings of Poussin, especially the Ashes of Phocion and the Holy Family on the Steps. The method throughout can be described as a structuralist approach in that images from both literature and the visual arts are compared with a view to discovering their similar design and internal structures. An important source for such a comparison is recent studies in the psychology of perception; they offer new perspectives on the problems of the comparison of different art forms. My intention is to work towards a set of descriptive terms based on the specific characteristics of poetry and painting. For instance a term like the analogue of vertical scanning serves to identify comparable procedures in the work of both Milton and Poussin. Other terms such as spatial form, modulation, tension, and closed form are helpful in order to establish guidelines for a scheme of similar relationships between the different arts. The discussion extends to include the doctrine of ut pictura poesis, an artistic theory important in Milton's and Poussin's time, and thought to hold the key to a successful comparison of poetry and painting. And by showing Milton and Poussin as belonging to the same phase of aesthetic history, some suggestions can be made concerning their position in the development from Renaissance to Baroque art.