Symbolic Language Of Ancient Art And Mythology By Knight. Illustrated 1892
Item History & Price
Symbolic Language of Ancient Art and Mythology by Knight. Illustrated 1892 ... Description:
The Symbolic Language of Ancient Art and Mythology
An Inquiry
by
Richard Payne Knight
A New Edition
With introduction, additions, notes
translated into English and
a new and complete index
by
Alexander Wilder
With 348 illustrations by
A. L. Rawson
Bouton’s Archaic Library- Volume II
J. W. Bouton, New York, 1892.
White and gray cloth hardcovers with gilt titles and decoration, octavo, gilt top edges, untrimmed fore and bottom edges, 452 pages, b&w full-page illustrations.
This influential work of 1818 by dilettante and critic Richard Payne Knight (1751–1824) has stood the test of time. The study investigates the sexual symbolism of the art of different religions, providing a key to the mythology of the ancients and fostering a clear understanding of the canons and principles of art. An eminent art historian, collector and textual critic, Knight led the way in convincing British taste that Roman art was inferior to Greek, arguing that Greek art was the more authentic and original. Here, he calls for more correct versions of Homer, Plato and other Hellenic writers, to obtain accurate perceptions of Grecian ideas. Demonstrating his in-depth knowledge of classical architecture and literature, and drawing upon his considerable resources as a collector, Knight analyses the genetic character of symbols, and the patterns of their occurrence in different cultures.
Richard) Payne Knight (15 February 1750 – 23 April 1824) of Downton Castle in Herefordshire, and of 5 Soho Square, London, England, was a classical scholar, connoisseur, archaeologist and numismatist best known for his theories of picturesque beauty and for his interest in ancient phallic imagery. He served as a Member of Parliament for Leominster (1780-4) and for Ludlow (1784-1806).
Career
He was educated privately at home. Due to ill health, his years of education were few, but his inherited wealth allowed him to supplement it with travel. For several years from 1767 he made the Grand Tour to Italy and the European continent. He was a collector of ancient bronzes and coins, and an author of numerous books and articles on ancient sculpture, coins and other artefacts. As a member of the Society of Dilettanti, Knight was widely considered to be an arbiter of taste. He expended much careful study on an edition of Homer.
He was a member of parliament from 1780 to 1806, more as a spectator than an actually participating in the debates. Beginning in 1814, he was a trustee of the British Museum, to which he bequeathed his collection of bronzes, coins, engraved gems, marbles, and drawings.
Books
Notoriously, Knight's first book, The Worship of Priapus, sought to recover the importance of ancient phallic cults. Knight's apparent preference for ancient sacred eroticism over Judeo-Christian puritanism led to many attacks on him as an infidel and as a scholarly apologist for libertinism. This ensured the persistent distrust of the religious establishment. The central claim of The Worship of Priapus was that an international religious impulse to worship 'the generative principle' was articulated through genital imagery, and that this imagery has persisted into the modern age. In some ways the book was the first of many later attempts to argue that Pagan ideas had persisted within Christian culture, a view that would eventually crystallise into the neo-Pagan movement over a century later.
Another book of interest to the neo-Pagan movement was Knight's Symbolical Language of Ancient Art and Mythology.
An Analytical Inquiry into the Principles of Taste, 1805, was, however, Knight's most influential work in his lifetime. This book sought to explain the experience of 'taste' within the mind and to clarify the theorisation of the concept of the picturesque, following from the writings of William Gilpin and Uvedale Price on the subject. Knight's views on the aesthetics of the picturesque are also formed in engagement with Edmund Burke's emphasis on the importance of sensation, which Knight partly rejects in favour of a modified associationism. The philosophical basis of Knight's theories have implications for his account of the relationship between the 'beautiful' and the 'picturesque'. For Knight, aesthetic concepts cannot be formed directly from optical sensations, because these must be interpreted within the mind before they can be recognised as beautiful. Thus a Classical architecture Roman temple is beautiful because of the proportions of its parts, but these proportions can never be perceived directly by the senses, which will simply encounter a mass of confused impressions. 'Beauty' is thus a product of internal mental acts. It is therefore proper to speak of moral, mathematical and other non-sensuous forms of beauty, contrary to Burke, Hogarth and others who claimed such usages were metaphorical. In all cases 'the particular object [e.g. proportion] is an abstract idea.’ We also have the uniformly bound volume I in Bouton’s Archaic Library - ‘The Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries’ by Thomas Taylor, listed separately.
CONDITION: Very Good+. (Covers have light soil and shelfwear, lightly bumped corner on front board. Contents are complete, clean and intact. Tight binding.) Check our other auctions and store listings for additional unusual items.
(Click here to view all of our auctions)
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Shipping :
DOMESTIC
Domestic Media Mail shipping, including Delivery Confirmation and Insurance, is standard. This applies to any address in the US and Puerto Rico, as well as to APO addresses.
Media Mail, available only for domestic shipping, is trucked to its destination, and shipped by boat to Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico, On the average it takes 3 to 10 days to arrive, depending on the distance and the vagaries of the US Postal Service.
Shipments to Alaska, Hawaii, APO and other off-shore addresses take longer to arrive.
During the pre-Christmas season, Media Mail is subject to delays.
When filling out the Ebay Detailed Seller Ratings, please keep in mind that the sometime slow arrival is due to the performance of the Postal Service and not to any tardiness on the part of the seller.
For expedited domestic mailing, Priority Mail shipping can be arranged at an additional cost. For most books, we charge between two and nine dollars for this service, including delivery confirmation and insurance. For heavy sets or high-value books, the charge may be higher.
INTERNATIONAL
For international shipping, we urge bidders to request quotes of shipping costs before bidding.
We will also specify international shipping options and prices after the conclusion of the auction. We will try to provide a range of options but buyers should be aware that all shipments are via air mail and shipping of heavy books can be expensive.
COMBINED SHIPPING
For international transactions, combined shipping of multiple lots can substantially reduce postage. This is especially the case for M-Bag shipments of up to 11 lbs and for multiple volumes that will fit into a single Priority Mail flat rate box. For the above options, the postage rate is fixed independently of the weight.
INSURANCE
All of our domestic shipments are fully insured.
Payment :
No credit cards except through PayPal. Paypal payments should be in US Dollars but Euros are also acceptable if prior agreement is obtained.
As of October 2008, Ebay is imposing the requirement that all payments be made via Paypal. We understand that this requirement may be a problem to some of our customers and we will do our best to accommodate their needs.
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The Symbolic Language of Ancient Art and Mythology
An Inquiry
by
Richard Payne Knight
A New Edition
With introduction, additions, notes
translated into English and
a new and complete index
by
Alexander Wilder
With 348 illustrations by
A. L. Rawson
Bouton’s Archaic Library- Volume II
J. W. Bouton, New York, 1892.
White and gray cloth hardcovers with gilt titles and decoration, octavo, gilt top edges, untrimmed fore and bottom edges, 452 pages, b&w full-page illustrations.
This influential work of 1818 by dilettante and critic Richard Payne Knight (1751–1824) has stood the test of time. The study investigates the sexual symbolism of the art of different religions, providing a key to the mythology of the ancients and fostering a clear understanding of the canons and principles of art. An eminent art historian, collector and textual critic, Knight led the way in convincing British taste that Roman art was inferior to Greek, arguing that Greek art was the more authentic and original. Here, he calls for more correct versions of Homer, Plato and other Hellenic writers, to obtain accurate perceptions of Grecian ideas. Demonstrating his in-depth knowledge of classical architecture and literature, and drawing upon his considerable resources as a collector, Knight analyses the genetic character of symbols, and the patterns of their occurrence in different cultures.
Richard) Payne Knight (15 February 1750 – 23 April 1824) of Downton Castle in Herefordshire, and of 5 Soho Square, London, England, was a classical scholar, connoisseur, archaeologist and numismatist best known for his theories of picturesque beauty and for his interest in ancient phallic imagery. He served as a Member of Parliament for Leominster (1780-4) and for Ludlow (1784-1806).
Career
He was educated privately at home. Due to ill health, his years of education were few, but his inherited wealth allowed him to supplement it with travel. For several years from 1767 he made the Grand Tour to Italy and the European continent. He was a collector of ancient bronzes and coins, and an author of numerous books and articles on ancient sculpture, coins and other artefacts. As a member of the Society of Dilettanti, Knight was widely considered to be an arbiter of taste. He expended much careful study on an edition of Homer.
He was a member of parliament from 1780 to 1806, more as a spectator than an actually participating in the debates. Beginning in 1814, he was a trustee of the British Museum, to which he bequeathed his collection of bronzes, coins, engraved gems, marbles, and drawings.
Books
Notoriously, Knight's first book, The Worship of Priapus, sought to recover the importance of ancient phallic cults. Knight's apparent preference for ancient sacred eroticism over Judeo-Christian puritanism led to many attacks on him as an infidel and as a scholarly apologist for libertinism. This ensured the persistent distrust of the religious establishment. The central claim of The Worship of Priapus was that an international religious impulse to worship 'the generative principle' was articulated through genital imagery, and that this imagery has persisted into the modern age. In some ways the book was the first of many later attempts to argue that Pagan ideas had persisted within Christian culture, a view that would eventually crystallise into the neo-Pagan movement over a century later.
Another book of interest to the neo-Pagan movement was Knight's Symbolical Language of Ancient Art and Mythology.
An Analytical Inquiry into the Principles of Taste, 1805, was, however, Knight's most influential work in his lifetime. This book sought to explain the experience of 'taste' within the mind and to clarify the theorisation of the concept of the picturesque, following from the writings of William Gilpin and Uvedale Price on the subject. Knight's views on the aesthetics of the picturesque are also formed in engagement with Edmund Burke's emphasis on the importance of sensation, which Knight partly rejects in favour of a modified associationism. The philosophical basis of Knight's theories have implications for his account of the relationship between the 'beautiful' and the 'picturesque'. For Knight, aesthetic concepts cannot be formed directly from optical sensations, because these must be interpreted within the mind before they can be recognised as beautiful. Thus a Classical architecture Roman temple is beautiful because of the proportions of its parts, but these proportions can never be perceived directly by the senses, which will simply encounter a mass of confused impressions. 'Beauty' is thus a product of internal mental acts. It is therefore proper to speak of moral, mathematical and other non-sensuous forms of beauty, contrary to Burke, Hogarth and others who claimed such usages were metaphorical. In all cases 'the particular object [e.g. proportion] is an abstract idea.’ We also have the uniformly bound volume I in Bouton’s Archaic Library - ‘The Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries’ by Thomas Taylor, listed separately.
CONDITION: Very Good+. (Covers have light soil and shelfwear, lightly bumped corner on front board. Contents are complete, clean and intact. Tight binding.) Check our other auctions and store listings for additional unusual items.
(Click here to view all of our auctions)
Shipping and Payment Information
Shipping :
DOMESTIC
Domestic Media Mail shipping, including Delivery Confirmation and Insurance, is standard. This applies to any address in the US and Puerto Rico, as well as to APO addresses.
Media Mail, available only for domestic shipping, is trucked to its destination, and shipped by boat to Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico, On the average it takes 3 to 10 days to arrive, depending on the distance and the vagaries of the US Postal Service.
Shipments to Alaska, Hawaii, APO and other off-shore addresses take longer to arrive.
During the pre-Christmas season, Media Mail is subject to delays.
When filling out the Ebay Detailed Seller Ratings, please keep in mind that the sometime slow arrival is due to the performance of the Postal Service and not to any tardiness on the part of the seller.
For expedited domestic mailing, Priority Mail shipping can be arranged at an additional cost. For most books, we charge between two and nine dollars for this service, including delivery confirmation and insurance. For heavy sets or high-value books, the charge may be higher.
INTERNATIONAL
For international shipping, we urge bidders to request quotes of shipping costs before bidding.
We will also specify international shipping options and prices after the conclusion of the auction. We will try to provide a range of options but buyers should be aware that all shipments are via air mail and shipping of heavy books can be expensive.
COMBINED SHIPPING
For international transactions, combined shipping of multiple lots can substantially reduce postage. This is especially the case for M-Bag shipments of up to 11 lbs and for multiple volumes that will fit into a single Priority Mail flat rate box. For the above options, the postage rate is fixed independently of the weight.
INSURANCE
All of our domestic shipments are fully insured.
Payment :
No credit cards except through PayPal. Paypal payments should be in US Dollars but Euros are also acceptable if prior agreement is obtained.
As of October 2008, Ebay is imposing the requirement that all payments be made via Paypal. We understand that this requirement may be a problem to some of our customers and we will do our best to accommodate their needs.
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