Art and the Sacred Journey in Britain, 1790-1850

The practice of walking to a sacred space for personal and spiritual transformation has long held a place in the British imagination. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries the notion of the transfer of ’spirit’ from the sacred space to representation began to re-emerge as a key aspect of theological and artistic discourse. Art and the Sacred Journey in Britain examines the intersections of the concept of pilgrimage and the visual imagination in Britain from the years 1790 to 1850. Through a close analysis of a range of interrelated written and visual sources, Kathryn Barush contends that pilgrimage, both in practice and as a form of mental contemplation, helped to shape the religious, literary, and artistic imagination of the period and beyond. Drawing on a rich range of material including paintings and drawings, manuscripts, letters, reliquaries, and architecture, the book offers an important contribution to scholarship in the fields of religious studies, anthropology, art history, and literature.

Kathryn R. Barush is Assistant Professor of Art History and Religion at the Graduate Theological Union and Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University.