'A speaking picture': the impact and influence of visual culture on the poetry and prose of Sir Philip Sidney (1554-86)

This thesis will focus on the Renaissance poet Sir Philip Sidney (1554-86), whose major works such as the prose romance The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia, the sonnet sequence Astrophil and Stella and the poetic treatise The Defence of Poesy shaped the world of Elizabethan literature. Sidney repeatedly draws comparisons between painting and poetry, connecting the visual culture of the early modern period with his writing. In his Defence, Sidney defines poetry as metaphorically, a speaking picture. This thesis will investigate the question of why Sidney repeatedly emphasises these links between poetry and painting by drawing on current critical work from literary studies, art history and comparative literature.

It will argue that Sidney was aware of the theoretical and practical changes occurring within the pictorial arts in the early modern period and that these changes deeply influenced his work. The thesis will be structured thematically, firstly focusing on the theoretical framework between painting and poetry in the early modern period. It will then progress to chapters concerning Sidney's engagement with visual culture in England; on his encounters with continental visual culture during his extensive travels; and on the relationship between visual culture and religion in the period.