No description available.

Thesis--Heidelberg. / Includes bibliographical references.

xiv, 141 p. : ill. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / Twentieth-century British figurative painter Francis Bacon (1909-1992) is perhaps best known for his near-obsessive series of papal paintings inspired by Diego Velazquez' renowned portrait Pope Innocent X (1650) and created over the course of Bacon's entire artistic career. The artist's working process plays a crucial role in understanding this celebrated and varied series. Bacon deliberately avoided Velazquez' "original" portrait, preferring instead to work with photographic reproductions of the piece alongside a large collection of seemingly disparate visual material in his chaotic studio at 7 Reece Mews (South Kensington, London, England). This thesis proposes that Bacon explored issues of mechanization, fragmentation, and repetition through these visual juxtapositions in order to offer a critique of artistic and religious institutions. / Committee in Charge: Dr. Kate Mondloch, Chair; Dr. Lauren G. Kilroy; Dr. Ellen Rees

Author's inaugural dissertation, Heidelberg. / "Literatur": p. ix-xi.

Author's inaugural dissertation, Heidelberg. / "Literatur": p. ix-xi.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1976. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 442-449).

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität zu München, 1908. / Includes bibliographical references.

Preface: An awareness of certain contradictory perceptions and assumptions regarding religious beliefs today and their relevance to art prompted a question which led to the research undertaken in this minithesis. The question was: how significant is the absence or presence of religious beliefs to the modern creative process? The writings of some theologians, sociologists, psychologists, and anthropologists seem to indicate that religious beliefs are fundamental to the functioning of society and the individuals who are part of it. Furthermore, even a cursory study of the history of art will demonstrate the strong bond between pre-nineteenth century image making and organised religion. Today, however, this relationship appears uncertain or even non-cxistant. This is a result of processes which began to gain strength in the nineteenth century: these include the industrial revolution, scientism and materialism. Peter Fuller, stated that among the most central questions affecting art is, "the severance of the arts from religious tradition and their existence within an increasingly secular culture." (Fuller, 1990, p. 189). This statement appears to bring the issues together very neatly. Firstly there is the assertion that religion has nourished and been a vital force behind art through the ages, and that, modern art has lost this source of vitality. Secondly, there is the contention tbat society, since the nineteenth century, has become increasingly secular, and that this has had (and is having) a radical effect on modern art. That art has been divorced from religion and that religion is disappearing, or will do so, is the logical conclusion, according to theorists who insist on institutional religion as the only true form. Some artists, for whom the absence or presence or loss of religious beliefs are important issues, may in this situation experience a creative crisis. In order to address these issues it was necessary to investigate whether religious beliefs are important to artistic endeavour and, if so, what the consequences of the absence of beliefs might be. For this reason, research into the nature of religion and the modem religious situation was initiated. The purpose of the extensive discussion on the nature of religion was to establish definitions of, or a view of, religion which could provide a sound basis for this investigation of the issues that have been outlined. In order to demonstrate whether religious beliefs are important to the creative process, Francis Bacon was chosen for discussion because he appeared to be a modern artist who had no religious beliefs and was thus an ideal example by which the consequences of this could be gauged.

Samuel Johnson's literary reputation in his own day was built largely upon his work as a moralist; consequently, the moral stance which forms the basis of this reputation merits more attention than it has hitherto received. It is my purpose in this thesis to establish that Johnson's moral writings, so highly rated by his contemporaries, reveal a distinctive quality of mind and a characteristic moral approach which links the author to the writings and to the moral thought of Francis Bacon. In establishing this connection, the first stage in this thesis is the isolation of common factors in the backgrounds of both men which could lead to a molding of moral attitudes into similar patterns. This is followed by an investigation of the effects of environmental influences and personal tastes which could draw Johnson to the moralist in Francis Bacon. More concrete evidence is sought in Johnson's Dictionary, a work which serves not only as a gauge of Johnson's moral thought but also as a measure of how closely his thought is aligned with that of Francis Bacon. The essays of the two moralists are examined to disclose the drive which directs their moral philosophy into a common path, a path which, leading away from all considerations of the theoretical to the practical service of their fellow man, derives from the same fixed principle of Christian charity. In following this principle of service, both men recognized the value of the essay and the biographical form as instruments of moral instruction; both utilized them as such in a pioneering fashion. Francis Bacon believed that the task of bringing the mind to virtue required, as a prerequisite, a study of the mind and its disorders. Johnson undertakes such a study along the lines envisaged by Bacon, and, in Rasselas, he is shown to be following the methods and directions of the earlier philosopher. Also investigated is the evident parallelism in their mutual concern to protect the mind from the errors of fallacious reasoning. Francis Bacon, in The Coulers of Good and Evill, had made an important contribution to the ethics of evaluation in devising a method of exposing and destroying the fallacies of sophistical reasoning; Samuel Johnson, in his review of Soame Jenyns’ study of evil, illustrates a practical application of this previously neglected method in the logical demolishment of one of the dominant myths of eighteenth-century society. The conclusion drawn from this presentation is that, even where direct influences cannot be ascribed, the evidence indicates powerful affinities in thought and in qualities of mind which draw Samuel Johnson to a similar approach to moral philosophy as that of Francis Bacon and result in similar conclusions about morals. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate