The Virtues and Vices in the Arts: A Sourcebook
Ebook
Overview
The seven deadly sins are pride, envy, anger, sloth, gluttony, greed, and lust. The seven virtues are prudence, fortitude, temperance, justice, faith, hope, and love. This book brings all of them together and for the first time lays out their history in a collection of the most important philosophical, religious, literary, and art-historical works. Starting with the Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian antecedents, this anthology of source documents traces the virtues-and-vices tradition through its cultural apex during the medieval era and then into their continued development and transformation from the Renaissance to the present. This anthology includes excerpts of Plato’s Republic, the Bible, Dante’s Purgatorio, and the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche and C. S. Lewis. Also included are artworks from medieval manuscripts; paintings by Giotto, Veronese, and Paul Cadmus; prints by Brueghel; and a photograph by Oscar Rejlander. What these works show is the vitality and richness of the virtues and vices in the arts from their origins to the present. You can continue this book’s conversation by visiting http://www.virtuesvicesinthearts.blogspot.com/. There you can join conversations, find out more, and meet other scholars and artists interested in this vibrant tradition.
”Shawn Tucker demonstrates how the concepts of virtue and vice
are not only very relevant to contemporary Western culture but have
a comprehensive, fluid, and contested history in art and
literature. This interdisciplinary study of these core cultural
concepts, and a serious inquiry into what behavior we sanction and
what behavior we condemn, is a welcome addition to the study of
humanities. Tucker’s lively introductions are especially effective
at linking ancient texts and artistic works to modern ones, with
generous nods to contemporary music, television, and cultural
phenomenon such as fad diets and Christian rock."
--Lee Ann Elliott Westman, University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso,
Texas
“This anthology is destined to become a standard sourcebook for all
things related to virtue and vice. Suitable for classroom adoption,
its selections have been thoughtfully chosen and well researched.
Each reading is accompanied by introductory matter explaining why
each text or painting is important and how it adds to our
understanding of this newly reenergized area for scholarly
investigation and pop-cultural obsession. The sheer quantity of
materials from a wide variety of sources bears testimony to the
fact that the virtues and vices still exert an irresistible force
over our collective imaginations."
--Hilaire Kallendorf, Texas A&M University, College Station,
TX
"Tucker puts excerpts from philosophical treatises into
conversation with religious and literary compositions. Even more
interesting, he draws on key artistic works, paintings, and
sculpture, allowing the reader to imagine other ways to think about
ethical problems. With a useful and accessible introduction, not to
mention shorter introductions for each reading, Tucker has
constructed an excellent sourcebook for any undergraduate class
touching on the history of ethics in the Western tradition."
--Dallas G. Denery II, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME
"Shawn R. Tucker’s well-conceived sourcebook on The Virtues and
the Vices in the Arts fills an important niche, and will be
especially helpful for students just embarking on their study of
the art and literature of European civilization. It represents a
very useful compilation of key texts and illustrative artworks that
document the historical conversation and debate about the moral
life that has shaped the different cultures springing from
Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian antiquity."
--Dwight D. Allman, Baylor University, Waco, TX
"Shawn Tucker has done a great service bringing together a variety
of texts and images from the rich tradition surrounding the vices
and virtues, texts as different as Plato’s Republic and
Hildegard of Bingen’s Ordo Virtutum, and images as varied as
Brueghel’s engravings of lust and anger and Paul Cadmus’s paintings
of envy and pride. This anthology will be a welcome resource for
students of history, philosophy, literature, and art."
--Holly Johnson, Mississippi State University, Mississippi State,
MS
"In The Virtues and the Vices in the Arts, Shawn Tucker has
brought together important works on the vices and virtues that
outline the trajectories of the development, diversification, and
sometimes reversal, of these lively concepts over more than two
thousand years of human thinking about morals and ethics. . . . The
sources gathered here present both nonspecialists and specialists
with enough material to appreciate the diversity and vitality of
the long-lasting debate on the nature of vice and virtue in Western
culture."
--Rhonda L. McDaniel, Middle Tennessee State University,
Murfreesboro, TN
Product Details
- Title : The Virtues and Vices in the Arts: A Sourcebook
- Author: Tucker, Shawn R.
- Publisher: Cascade Books
- Publication Date: 2015
- ISBN: 9781630878467
Shawn Tucker is Assistant Professor of Fine Arts at Elon University. He was recently the guest editor for a special issue of Interdisciplinary Humanities. His has also received a National Endowment for the Humanities Enduring Questions grant to develop a course on Pride, Humility, and the Good Life.