With 100 historic illustrations, this scholarly study explores how visual depictions of the Scottish Highlands influenced perceptions of the region.
Early in the 18th century, the Scottish Highlands became a source of fascination across the British Isles. Artists, illustrators, and mapmakers capitalized on the trend by producing popular images of rural life and dramatic landscapes. In From an Antique Land, Anne MacLeod brings a fresh analysis to these images, exploring what they reveal about cultural perceptions of the remote region and its people.
Illustrated with 100 plates—including a broad range of maps, plans, paintings, drawings, sketches and printed images—this volume demonstrates that the concept of antiquity was the single most powerful influence driving the visual representation of the Highlands and Islands from 1700 to 1880, and indeed beyond. MacLeod also looks at archaeological, ethnological and geological influences that contributed to this bias in favor of antiquity.
The book concludes that the shadow of time which hallmarked visual representations of the region resulted in a preservationist mentality which has had powerful repercussions for approaches to Highland issues down to the present day. The book will appeal to historians, art historians, cultural geographers, and the general reader interested in Highland history and culture.
