Apocalyptic Progress: The Politics of Catastrophe in the Art of John Martin, Francis Danby, and David Roberts.

This dissertation investigates a series of large–scale apocalyptic-themed paintings produced in London during the 1820s by the artists John Martin, Francis Danby and David Roberts. Each of these artists created works that excited and amazed London audiences with their scale, perspective, and visual drama. However, they were not mere spectacles. My central contention is that many people viewed these paintings through a political framework in the 1820s and 1830s, and that the meanings generated by them were aligned with the rhetoric and policies of those in favor of political reform. Rather than interpreting these paintings as bleak predictions of a violent future, I believe they should be viewed as mechanisms of political motivation. Painting the destruction of ancient cities was designed to motivate viewers to want to avoid such destruction in the future. During this era Britain was commonly described as either modern Babylon or modern Israel and these works suggested that the collective salvation of Britain was contingent on political reform. The frequent employment of biblical narratives in political writings and their repeated use by several artists during a concentrated period of time provides a firm basis for positing connections between the visual and the political. In support of my argument I have analyzed the coherence between the discursive implications of these religious subjects in concert with the manner of their representation. Through the examination of an array of primary sources, including popular journals, published sermons, religious pamphlets, art criticism, and newspaper articles, I demonstrate how these paintings could have connoted reformist political policies such the abolition of slavery, land redistribution, and other measures designed to foster economic equality and counter laissez faire ideology. In short, my work attempts to shed light on the connections between Christianity and progressive political ideas in the early nineteenth century and illuminate the ways in which visual media impacted these dynamic processes.Ph.D.History of ArtUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/84474/1/coltrin_1.pd