Editing English art (section)

{{Short description|Overview of the art of England}}
[[Image:LindisfarneFol27rIncipitMatt.jpg|thumb|upright=1.2|Folio 27r from the 8th-century [[Lindisfarne Gospels]] contains the incipit from the [[Gospel of Matthew]].]]
{{Culture of England}}
'''English art''' is the body of [[visual arts]] made in [[England]]. England has Europe's earliest and northernmost [[Last glacial period|ice-age]] [[cave art]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/3326032/Britains-first-nude.html |title=Britain's first nude? |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |access-date=28 August 2017 }}</ref> [[Prehistoric art]] in England largely corresponds with art made elsewhere in contemporary [[Great Britain|Britain]], but early medieval [[Anglo-Saxon art]] saw the development of a distinctly English style,<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/art/Anglo-Saxon-art |title=Anglo-Saxon art |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |access-date=28 August 2017 }}</ref> and English art continued thereafter to have a distinct character. English art made after the formation in 1707 of the [[Kingdom of Great Britain]] may be regarded in most respects simultaneously as [[art of the United Kingdom]].

Medieval English painting, mainly religious, had a strong national tradition and was influential in Europe.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/art/Western-painting/Western-Dark-Ages-and-medieval-Christendom |title=Western Dark Ages And Medieval Christendom |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]] |access-date=28 August 2017 }}</ref> The [[English Reformation]], which was antipathetic to art, not only brought this tradition to an abrupt stop but resulted in the destruction of almost all wall-paintings.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/9350681/The-story-of-the-Reformation-needs-reforming.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120623234748/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/9350681/The-story-of-the-Reformation-needs-reforming.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=23 June 2012 |title=The story of the Reformation needs reforming |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |access-date=11 September 2017 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/art-under-attack-histories-british-iconoclasm/art-under-attack-1 |title=Art under Attack: Histories of British Iconoclasm |publisher=[[Tate]] |access-date=28 August 2017 }}</ref> Only [[illuminated manuscripts]] now survive in good numbers.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/illmanus/ |title=Manuscripts from the 8th to the 15th century |publisher=[[British Library]] |access-date=28 August 2017 |archive-date=30 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200330210735/http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/onlineex/illmanus/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>

There is in the art of the [[English Renaissance]] a strong interest in [[Portrait painting|portraiture]], and the [[portrait miniature]] was more popular in England than anywhere else.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/bpor/hd_bpor.htm |title=Portrait Painting in England, 1600–1800 |publisher=[[Metropolitan Museum of Art]] |access-date=28 August 2017 }}</ref> English Renaissance sculpture was mainly architectural and for [[monumental tomb]]s.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://shop.ashmolean.org/index.php/books/ashmolean-books/medieval-and-renaissance-sculpture-in-the-ashmolean-museum-jeremy-warren.html |title=Medieval And Renaissance Sculpture |publisher=[[Ashmolean Museum]] |access-date=28 August 2017 |archive-date=12 September 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170912060812/https://shop.ashmolean.org/index.php/books/ashmolean-books/medieval-and-renaissance-sculpture-in-the-ashmolean-museum-jeremy-warren.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Interest in English [[landscape painting]] had begun to develop by the time of the 1707 [[Acts of Union 1707|Act of Union]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2001/jul/19/artsfeatures.arts |title=Edge of darkness |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=28 August 2017 }}</ref>

Substantive definitions of English art have been attempted by, among others, art scholar [[Nikolaus Pevsner]] (in his 1956 book ''The Englishness of English Art''),<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00h9llv |title=Nikolaus Pevsner: The Englishness of English Art: 1955 |work=[[BBC Online]] |access-date=30 August 2017 }}</ref> art historian [[Roy Strong]] (in his 2000 book ''The Spirit of Britain: A narrative history of the arts'')<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/1999/aug/29/peterconrad |title=That was then... |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=30 August 2017 }}</ref> and critic [[Peter Ackroyd]] (in his 2002 book ''Albion'').<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/donotmigrate/3583002/Ackroyds-England.html |title=Ackroyd's England |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |access-date=30 August 2017 }}</ref>