Heaven and the Flesh Imagery of Desire from the Renaissance to the Rococo [Hardcover]

The book studies the relationship between sexual desire and spiritual ascension in art and writing from Renaissance to Romanticism.Do the angels make love? Will the souls of ordinary people feel sexual pleasure in the next world? Heaven and the Flesh explores the relationship between sexual desire and spiritual ascension in art and writing from the high renaissance to the birth of romanticism. Clive Hart and Kay Stevenson analyse the work of little known as well as canonical writers and artists, and philosophers and theologians as well as wits. This wide-ranging and well-illustrated survey offers new and sometimes surprising insights into material both familiar and unfamiliar.Do the angels make love? Will the souls of ordinary people feel sexual pleasure in the next world? Heaven and the Flesh explores the relationship between sexual desire and spiritual ascension in art and writing from the high renaissance to the birth of romanticism. Clive Hart and Kay Stevenson analyse the work of little known as well as canonical writers and artists, and philosophers and theologians as well as wits. This wide-ranging and well-illustrated survey offers new and sometimes surprising insights into material both familiar and unfamiliar.Do the angels make love? Will the souls of ordinary people feel sexual pleasure in the next world? Heaven and the Flesh explores the relationship between sexual desire and spiritual ascension in art and writing from the High Renaissance to the birth of Romanticism. Clive Hart and Kay Stevenson analyze the work of little-known as well as canonical writers and artists, philosophers and theologians. This wide-ranging and well-illustrated survey offers new and sometimes surprising insights into material both familiar and unfamiliar.1. Sexuality and ascension - finding the way; 2. The woman on top - Christ, Endymion, Ganymede; 3. Paradisiacal bosoms; 4. Imparadised in one another's arms; 5. Heaven and the flesh; 6. The body and ascension in the sacred rl“