Disability, Narrative and Neoclassical History Painting

Nicholas Junkerman examines how US neoclassical painting depicted physical disability. Focusing on Washington Allston’s studies for Christ Healing the Sick, which he prepared in 1813, Junkerman notes that while... [ view full abstract ]

Nicholas Junkerman examines how US neoclassical painting depicted physical disability. Focusing on Washington Allston’s studies for Christ Healing the Sick, which he prepared in 1813, Junkerman notes that while healing-miracle narratives require Allston to depict disabled bodies, his idealizing aesthetic makes these figures difficult to represent. The result is awkward, combining elements meant to signify disability with the exaggerated perfection of robustly symmetrical bodies. Briefly comparing Allston’s studies with Benjamin West’s 1778 Death of the Earl of Chatham, Junkerman observes differences between Allston’s biblical scene and West’s contemporary political subject, emphasizing the paintings’ shared focus on figures whose disability is both absolutely central and somewhat obscured by neoclassicism’s visual vocabulary. This comparison demonstrates that questions of disability representation raised by Allston are not merely incidental to that failed project. Rather, they originate in the ideal order of neoclassical history painting, which is simultaneously dependent upon disability narratives and averse to disabled bodies.