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The Pre-Raphaelites Spring 2003 Medieval and Arthurian Images Eveyln
(Pickering) de Morgan
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The Pre-Raphaelites Spring 2003 Medieval and Arthurian Images Eveyln
(Pickering) de Morgan
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Medieval and Arthurian Images by Pre-Raphaelites
The above work, The Uninvited Guest by Eleanor F. Brickdale (1906), shows a procession of richly-dressed people leaving a wedding ceremony, oblivious of the figure of Love, an "uninvited guest" at a marriage of rank, wealth and convenience. Note the nettles and prickles growing by the path from the church. What do you think of Brickdale's visual image of Love? If you try to imagine what Love looks like, do you come up with an image like this?
Evelyn de Morgan, Earthbound, 1897. This is an allegorical composition, in which an aged king, in a desolate country, broods over his hoard of gold while the dark Angel of Death approaches. When the painting was first shown in 1907, de Morgan added these lines, which she wrote:Who clutches at a heap of gold
Still clutches what he may not hold,
The soul that knows no second birth
Shall wane, fast held by Mother Earth.
Grim twins await his latest breath,
Oblivion, hand in hand with Death;
He sinks, the captive of his prize,
Nor ever knows that others rise.
Emma Sandys, Elaine, c. 1862-5. Elaine is a heroine of Tennyson's Arthurian poem Idylls of the King; her love for Lancelot is unrequited. Elaine is the name given by some writers to the Lady of Shalott, who falls madly in love with Lancelot but can never have him.Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale, The Pale Complexion of True Love, 1899. The title is taken from Shakespeare's AS You Like It, Act III, when Corin speaks of Silvius' unrequired love for Phebe as a "pageant play'd Between the pale complexion of true love And the red glow of scorn and proud disdain." Brickdale's setting is closer to Renaissance Italy than Elizabethan England, and the people are not Shakespeare's shepherds but definitely nobility.
Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale,The Ugly Princess, c. 1902. The composition was inspired by a poem by Charles Kingsley, whose concluding lines were quoted in the catalogue when the picture was exhibited: "I was not good enough for man and so am given to God." The heroine is a princess forced to become a nun after being rejected by her intended husband.
Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale,The Little Foot Page, 1905. The work is based on the story of Burd Helen, a tragic heroine from Scottish balladry, who dressed as a boy page to follow her cruel lover on foot while he rode on horseback. After bearing him a child, she was finally acknowledged by him and they married. Here she is shown secretly doffing her female attire and cutting her long hair, in preparation for her journey. Within a few years of the exhibition, modern female art students were cutting their hair in "page boy" style.
Eleanor Fortescue Brickdale, The Uninvited Guest, 1906.
John Everett Millais, The Knight Errant, 1870. This is frequently compared to Dicksee's Chivalry.
Elizabeth Siddal, Lady Clare, 1857. This drawing illustrates Tennyson's Lady Clare, in which the heroine's natural mother begs her to conceal her humble origin, lest Lord Ronald withdraw his offer of marriage. Lady Clare refuses:
'I'm a beggar born,' she said,
'I will speak out, for I dare not lie.
Pull off, pull off the brooch of gold
And fling the diamond necklace by.''Nay now, my child,' said Alice the nurse,
'But keep the secret all ye can.'
She said, 'Not so; but I will know
If there be any faith in man."Elizabeth Siddal, The Lady of Shalott, pencil, pen, black ink, and sepia, 1853. This is the 4th version of the Lady of Shalott, and the only one done by a woman. It's interesting to note what point in the story the artist chooses to depict. Here, Siddal shows her at the moment she looks out the window, echoing these lines by Tennyson:
Out flew the web and floated wide;
The mirror crack'd from side to side;
'The curse is come upon me,' cried
The Lady of Shalott.Still, some critics have noted that this is the one moment in the story and poem in which the lady is in control of her own destiny; others have remarked that while most Pre-Raphaelite paintings allow us to look at women, in this drawing it is the woman who is allowed to look at the world.
Elizabeth Siddal, Clerk Saunders, watercolor, 1857. This work traveled to the USA in 1858 in an exhibit organized by Rossetti. It was among those singled out for harsh criticism, being called a minor and unimportant Pre-Raphaelite work. Did the artist's gender play a part in that judgment?
The subject is taken from a ballad by Sir Walter Scott by the same name. The story is one of love between social unequals; objects in the room such as the prie-dieu suggest the medieval era and a female sphere of religious devotion. May Margaret is kneeling on her alcove bed raising a wand to her lips as the ghost of her murdered lover Clerk Saunders enters through the wall, asking her to renew her vows.
Elizabeth Siddal, Lady Affixing Pennant to a Knight's Spear, watercolor, 1861. Siddal was encouraged in her artistic works by both Rossetti and Ruskin, who believed she had extraordinary talent. Here, a medieval lady helps a knight fix a pennant to his lance before he rides out to combat.
Marianne Perindelsberger Stokes, St. Elizabeth of Hungary Spinning for the Poor, 1895. St. Elizabeth of Hungary was a medieval noblewoman canonised in 1235. Married at 14 to the landgrave of Thuringia, she was renowned for her good works and self-mortification. After her husband's death, she refused to remarry, renounced her crown, and became a nun. Here she is depicted as a pious young girl.
Marie Spartali Stillman, St. George, watercolor and pencil, 1892. St. George, patron saint of England and Greece, was popular with Victorian artists because of his patriotic and religious-chivalric appeal. The hero is depicted here in youth, as an ideal of masculinity--at least from this woman artist's point of view. What traits do you find here?
Marie Spartali Stillman, The Enchanted Garden of Messer Ansaldo, 1889. The subject is from Boccaccio's Decameron, which tells the story of Messer Ansaldo's love for Madonna Dianora, the virtuous wife of another man. With the aid of sorcery, he makes the garden blossom in mid-winter in order to win her (she pledges that if he can do this she will be his). The scene shows him at his moment of triumph, but she seems less than delighted, having no wish to see him achieve his task. Boccaccio was widely regarded in the 19th century as too bawdy for refined tastes, but the artist has downplayed the sexual drama in favor of color and natural setting.
Frank Dicksee, La Belle Dame Sans Merci, undated. Other Belle Dame images are Cowper's and Waterhouse's.
Frank Dicksee, Chivalry, 1885. This one has been compared to Millais' Knight Errant (1870).
Kate Bunce, The Keepsake, tempera on canvas, 1898-1901. This was chosen as "Picture of the Year" by the Pall Mall Gazette in 1901. It illustrates Rossetti's poem "The Staff and Scrip," a passage after the death of the pilgrim: "Then stepped a damsel to her side/ And spoke and needs must weep:/ For his sake, lady, if he died/ He prayed of thee to keep/ This staff and scrip." Another painting by Bunce, The Minstrel, is on the 4777 home page.
Burne-Jones, The Last Sleep of Arthur, 1881-88. The Last Sleep of Arthur, detail.
Burne-Jones, Chant d'Amour. While not strictly Arthurian, the medieval flavor is obvious.
Burne-Jones, The Beguiling of Merlin, 1874. This work appeared at the newly opened Grosvenor Gallery, which none of the original PRB attended. Because of this, Burne-Jones became synonymous with the movement, and now many of his works are considered more Pre-Raphaelite in nature than those of the Brotherhood themselves.
Detail from The Beguiling of Merlin
Burne-Jones, Merlin and Nimue, 1861. Nimue was Merlin's apprentice/lover. What are Merlin and Nimue thinking/feeling?
Burne-Jones, The Magic Circle, 1880. A mysterious necromancer and his apprentice are the subject here.
Burne-Jones, The Heart of the Rose, wool tapestry, 1901--another work not strictly Arthurian, but very strongly medieval in theme. In medieval literature, the rose frequently embodies both spiritual and sexual meanings. The light colored band running vertically through the work is the result of a less than perfect scan, not a feature of the original tapestry.
Burne-Jones, Saint George and the Dragon, 1868.
Burne-Jones, The Madness of Sir Tristram, 1862. Sir Tristram discovers false evidence of Iseult's love for Sir Kay Hedius. Sir Tristram is driven to madness, and retreats to a forest, where he lives like a wild man, fed by herdsmen and shepherds. The design comes from a set of thirteen stained glass panels illustrating the story of Sir Tristram, which Burne-Jones designed for Morris and Company. He became a partner in the firm in 1861.
Sir Galahad, 1858. Galahad was the chaste knight.
Cadogan Cowper, La Belle Dame Sans Merci, 1926. Cowper has been called the last true Pre-Raphaelite. Here he paints a theme from Keats. His aggressive color is a rejection of the dreamy pastels that many later Pre-Raphaelites used. Other Belle Dame Sans Merci images were done by Waterhouse and Dicksee.
Cadogan Cowper, The Damsel of the Lake Called Nimue the Enchantress
John William Waterhouse, La Belle Dame Sans Merci, 1893. The model is the same as in Waterhouse's Lady of Shalott series; the treatment is very different from Cowper's, above.
John William Waterhouse, The Lady of Shalott, 1888
John William Waterhouse, The Lady of Shalott, 1894. Here is a later version of the same subject. Elizabeth Siddal's drawing The Lady of Shalott, which makes an interesting comparison, as does Holman Hunt's version, below.
Holman Hunt, The Lady of Shalott, 1897 Rossetti, How Sir Galahad, Sir Bors and Sir Percival Were Fed with the Sanct Grael; but Sir Percival's Sister Died by the Way, 1864, watercolor. This work illustrates how a lady perished while the purest knights were preserved; it was painted not too long after Elizabeth Siddal's death.
Rossetti,Before the Battle, 1858, watercolor. Elizabeth Siddal is the model.
Rossetti,How They Met Themselves, pen and brush, 1851-60
Rossetti,Sir Launcelot in the Queen's Chamber, 1857
