Shaker Vision: Seeing Beauty in Early America - Softcover

Manca, Joseph

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1625344686 ISBN 13: 9781625344687

Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press, 2019

Synopsis

The Shakers are known for self-denial and austerity in everyday living and their material world, as embodied by the heavenly simplicity and purity of their chairs and blanket chests. Yet the believers also enjoyed a diversity of visual pleasures, from flowers, sunsets, rainbows, and the northern lights as seen at home to waterfalls, ocean waves, and dramatic cliffs viewed while traveling across America.

In Shaker Vision, Joseph Manca explores original texts, especially diaries and travel journals, and material culture to demonstrate that Shakers enjoyed a remarkably deep experience of the visual world. Shakers shared tastes with mainstream Americans and often employed a similar aesthetic vocabulary, but all within a belief system that made them distinct. In addition to their well-known ascetic architecture, furniture, and handicraft styles, they expressed themselves through ornate and detailed spiritual art and in vivid, visionary experiences. Based on firsthand accounts of the believers themselves, this richly illustrated volume will dramatically change how we assess the visual world of this uniquely American religious sect.

About this title

About the Author

JOSEPH MANCA is professor of art history and Nina J. Cullinan Professor of Art and Art History at Rice University. He is author of George Washington's Eye: Landscape, Architecture, and Design at Mount Vernon, which was awarded the Foundation for Landscape Studies' John Brinckerhoff Jackson Book Prize.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1625344686
• ISBN 13: 9781625344687
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 408