Wednesday, June 7, 2017

Burne-Jones & Two-Dimensional Victorian Beauty-Projects

Edward Burne-Jones
 Tile Design - Theseus and the Minotaur in the Labyrinth
1861
wash drawing
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

Edward Burne-Jones
Feast of Peleus
ca. 1872-81
oil on canvas
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

Cloud-maidens that bring the rain-shower
   To the Pallas-loved land let us wing,
To the land of stout heroes and Power,
   Where Kekrops was hero and king,
Where honour and silence is given
   To the mysteries that none may declare,
Where are gifts to the god in high heaven
   When the house of the gods is laid bare. 
Where are lofty roofed temples, and statues well carven and fair;
   Where are feasts to the happy immortals
When the sacred procession draws near,
   Where garlands make bright the bright portals
At all seasons and months of the year;
   And when spring days are here,
Then we tread to the wine-god a measure,
  In Bacchanal dance and in pleasure,
'Mid the contests of sweet singing choirs,
   And the crash of loud lyres. 

 Oscar Wilde (1856-1900) from his translation of The Clouds by Aristophanes

Edward Burne-Jones
Pygmalion and the Image - The Heart Desires
1878
oil on canvas
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

Edward Burne-Jones
Pygmalion and the Image - The Godhead Fires
1878
oil on canvas
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

Edward Burne-Jones
Pygmalion and the Image - The Soul Attains
1878
oil on canvas
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

Edward Burne-Jones
St George slaying the Dragon
1866
oil on canvas
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

Edward Burne-Jones
Study for St George slaying the Dragon
1865-66
drawing
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

Edward Burne-Jones
Phyllis and Demophon
1870
bodycolor and watercolor
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

So now the very bones of you are gone
Where they were dust and ashes long ago;
And there was the last ribbon you tied on
To bind your hair, and that is dust also;
And somewhere there is dust that was of old
A soft and scented garment that you wore  
The same that once till dawn did closely fold
You in with fair Charaxus, fair no more. 

 Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869-1935) from his translation of an epigram by Posidippus

Edward Burne-Jones
King Mark and La Belle Iseult
1862
bodycolor and watercolor
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

Edward Burne-Jones
The Wizard
1896-98
oil on canvas
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

Edward Burne-Jones
Winter - Study of flying drapery
1866-67
drawing
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

Edward Burne-Jones
Three studies  of a female nude
possibly for Venus

1865-66
drawing
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

Edward Burne-Jones
Nude studies for soldiers
for The Princess led to the Dragon

1865-66
drawing
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
 
Edward Burne-Jones
Portrait head of man
1865-66
drawing
Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

Torquatus, if the gods in heaven shall add
   The morrow to the day, what tongue has told?
Feast then thy heart, for what thy heart has had
   The fingers of no heir will ever hold.

When thou descendest once the shades among,
   The stern assize and equal judgment o'er,
Not thy long lineage nor thy golden tongue,
   No, nor thy righteousness, shall friend thee more. 

Night holds Hippolytus the pure of stain,
   Diana steads him nothing, he must stay;
And Theseus leaves Pirithous in the chain
   The love of comrades cannot take away.

 A.E. Housman (1859-1936) from his translation of an ode of Horace