Art, Ethics and the Human-Animal Relationship

Linda M. Johnson, Curator of Hancock Shaker Village (Living History Museum in Massachusetts, USA). Johnson’s research and teaching focus has been in American and European Art History at the University of Michigan-Flint, USA, and The Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, USA. She is a Senior Fellow at the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, UK. Publications include “Increase Mather: A Pre-Millennial Portrait During the Revocation of the Massachusetts Charter” in American Literature and the New Puritan Studies, (2018).

“This work is a welcome addition to the growing list of scholarly books that take seriously the ways that representations of nonhuman animals have significant and important implications when it comes to larger issues around the treatment of the other animals we share the planet with. One of the many strengths of this book is that it offers concrete and detailed examples of ways that art historians can critically engage with these issues … .” (Keri Cronin, Journal of Animal Ethics, Vol. 13 (2), 2023)

• 1. Chapter 1: Introduction.- 2. Chapter 2: A New Breed: The Cat as Scapegoat in Edenic and Utopian Imagery.- 3. Chapter 3: Virtue and Vice in High Couture.- 4. Chapter 4: Transformational Approaches: Equine Speciesism.- 5. Chapter 5: Looking Askance: The Changing Shape Of “Meat” In Dutch Still Life Painting.- 6. Chapter 6: Historical Processes: Embodied /Embedded.- 7. Chapter 7: Absent Referents: Bristly Brushes.- 8. Chapter 8: Conclusion: Darkness into Light.-