Title: Art and identity in Scotland : a cultural history from the Jacobite rising of 1745 to Walter Scott /
Authors: Coltman, Viccy,
Year: 2019
Subjects: Arts, Scottish; National characteristics, Scottish; Scots Foreign countries.; Arts, Scottish; Civilization; National characteristics, Scottish; Scotland Civilization; Scotland Civilization; Great Britain History; Great Britain.; Scotland.
Abstract: "This book seeks to map the cultural contours and detours of identity by focusing on the representation of certain Scots as individuals and Scotland as a nation within Britain's global empire, from the middle decades of the eighteenth century to the early 1830s. Its conceptual starting point is a speech, specifically the fourth anniversary discourse delivered by David Stewart Erskine, the 11th Earl of Buchan, at a meeting of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland on 15 November 1784. The foundation of the society in 1780 has been described as Buchan's most memorable contribution to the cultural identity of Scotland. In it, he informed his fellow antiquarians: 'I consider Scotland my native Country as a rude but noble medallion of antient sculpture which ought not to be defaced or forgotten in the Cabinet of Nations because it lay next to one more beautiful & splendid richer and larger, more polished, and elegant, but of less relief. As a Man I felt myself a Citizen of the World, as a friend to Peace to Liberty & to Science which cannot exist asunder I considered myself as an inhabitant of a United Kingdom, but as a Citizen I could not help remembring that I was a Scot'"--
Contents: Scots in Europe : 'making a figure' : painted portraiture on the grand tour -- Scots in London : 'the means of bread with applause' : George Steuart's architectural elevation -- Scots in empire : 'good fishing in muddy waters' : Claud Alexander in Calcutta and Catrine -- The prince in Scotland : 'daubed with plaid and crammed with treason' : the visual and material culture of embodied insurrection -- The monarch in the metropolis : a scopic spectacle : George IV's visit to Edinburgh, August 1822 -- Borders bard : 'the exactness of the resemblance' : Sir Walter Scott and the physiognomy of romanticism -- Conclusion: Scott-land.