Beyond the Canvas: Translations Across Media and Dimensions, the Popular Canon and 'Printorial' Reform in the Long Nineteenth Century

Across the long nineteenth century, image reproductions acted as sites of experimentation that were key to establishing art history as a discipline. Chains of reproductions developed as images were repeatedly copied and translated into a wider range of media than ever before. Though widespread, this expansion of images into multiple media has received limited exploration, often in favour of reproductions into traditional printed, painted and drawn media. Focusing on reproductions where images were translated into relief formats, this thesis identifies a new ‘printorial’ genre that expanded the prominent graphic pictoriality of prints to a wide range of reproductive objects. Imagery was translated to be understood beyond the canvas through new media and contexts that exemplified the nineteenth-century preoccupation with reform, with a focus on developing aesthetic skill and knowledge.

This study works at the intersection of print, sculptural, reception, art theoretical and material culture studies to explore how ‘printorial’ objects reformed visual and material culture through widening popular access to imagery. In working across reproductions in different media, scales and dimensions, this thesis challenges the tendency to prioritise ‘high art’ mediums and forms connections between women, educational projects, amateur productions, industrial firms and professional artists. This methodology reveals a much fuller understanding of which images were most frequently reproduced and formed popular canons for audiences, often in contrast to that promoted by academic authorities. Through exploring a holistic view of the intersections of intermediality, secular and religious contexts, and high and low culture, this thesis highlights the hitherto unrecognised, but fruitful, relationship between material experimentation and the translated dissemination of a popular visual canon. Exploring the realms of creating and displaying reproductions, and how viewers might interact with these, evidences the versatility and expanse of ‘printorial’ reliefs as a mode of visual reform in the long nineteenth century.