"Fierce warres and faithfull loues" Edmund Spenser's Pictorialism: Motifs of Mars and Venus in The Faerie Queene and Renaissance Visual Art

Abstract

<p>This thesis involves an exploration of the relationship between the pictorial nature of Spenser's The Faerie Queene and the visual arts. The doctrine of ut pictura poesis indicates that the affinity between the sister arts of painting and poetry was of fundamental concern in the Renaissance. The extent of Spenser's awareness of and familiarity with the visual arts is a contentious point, but there are indications of possible connections. There are many possible visual influences by which Spenser could have been acquainted with traditional modes of representation. Spenser's pictorial technique involves a pattern of painting a picture rich in emblematic detail and then withdrawing from description to comment on this easily visualized depiction. He thus sets up a system of clarification and doubt that requires a wary and alert reader. In discussing Spenser's pictorialism, the myth of Mars and Venus provides a good example, especially as the theme of love and war is common throughout the poem. Through the repetition of certain key elements together in one picture, a motif is set up so that the reader eventually recognizes this image as having meaning and significance in itself. Some of the individual features are also present in visual depictions of the lovers, showing a shared tradition of the way in which a subject or figure was frequently portrayed. The negative aspects of the Mars and Venus story are demonstrated well by this motif. Each time it appears there are subtle differences that should alert the reader. There are also positive and humorous sides to the myth of Mars and Venus and just as there are characters who illustrate the negative side, so, too, are there those that are types demonstrating these other two aspects. Thus through an examination of the relationship between painting (and the other visual arts) and The Faerie Queene, added dimensions of meaning can be enjoyed by the reader.</p>