ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that Butler's anti-academicism was not merely another example of his contestation of all forms of professional authority. Samuel Butler's two main works on art are Alps and Sanctuaries and Ex Voto. In both, Butler discusses what he believed to be the neglected fifteenth- and sixteenth-century art of Lombardy and Piedmont. Alps and Sanctuaries is as much an impressionistic travel guide as it is a work of art criticism; Ex Voto, in contrast, is primarily a work of art criticism. Previous critics have noted how Butler's anti-professionalism extended to his art criticism. Commenting on Butler's writings on contemporary British art, Elinor Shaffer writes that 'the characteristic combination in prosperous artists of his time of late Romantic posturing with rising professionalism was a subject worthy of his satirical talents'. Butler's anti-academicism derives, therefore, from the opposition he makes between sincerity of motive and technical ability.
