Christmas is coming, so it is easy to spot images celebrating the birth of Jesus portraying Mary, Joseph and the Holy Child, the adoration and the journey of the Magi. One of such scenes can be admired also at the exhibition celebrating Edward Burne-Jones, currently on at the Tate Britain in London. Among the pieces on display there is indeed a tapestry from 1894 representing the adoration of the Magi.
All the figures are immersed in a garden-like environment with flowers in bloom and the three kings are characterised by sumptuous robes with striking details. The three figures bow in front of Jesus, represented in all his humanity, as a baby curling up in his mother's arms as if he were frightened.
Originally commissioned to Morris & Company to decorate the Gothic revival chapel of Exeter College, Oxford, the tapestry was so successful that nine versions were produced between 1890 and 1907.
The overall composition and the figures were designed by Edward Burne-Jones, while the architecture was entrusted to his colleague John Henry Dearle.
William Morris and Dearle chose a vibrant colour scheme and added background and foreground details including the flowering plants.
The details are particularly intriguing in this piece – from the gems decorating the robes of the angel to Melchior's surcoat featuring silver disks embossed with symbolical figures or the border of Gaspar's robe, decorated with the story of Saint George and the dragon.
But there's more to admire at the first solo show (until 24th February 2019) dedicated to Burne-Jones since 1933.
Born in Birmingham in 1833, Burne-Jones studied theology at Exeter College, Oxford, intending to become a church minister. After he met William Morris, the plans of the two friends changed and both left university to pursue a very different career.
Burne-Jones didn't have any formal training in fine art but became an apprentice to the pre-Raphaelite artist and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti. He developed a personal approach to painting, even though the influence of the Pre-Raphaelites remained persistent throughout his life.
Burne-Jones preferred to focus on universes revolving around Medieval art, religion, classical myths, Gothic fairytales, and themes and tales borrowed from Chaucer, Spenser and Tennyson, rejecting Victorian ideals and industrial inspirations.
His paintings, stained glass windows, tapestries, embroidery and jewellery often featured Arthurian knights, classical heroes and Biblical angels.
When in 1861, Morris founded the decorative arts firm of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co. Burne-Jones joined in as a partner. The firm flourished and Burne-Jones continued to produce work that favoured the archaic style of the pre-Raphaelite movement until his death in 1898.
The exhibition at Tate Britain features around 150 objects and opens with Burne-Jones' early works as a church decorator with "The Good Shepherd" (1857-61) and "The Adoration of the Magi" (1861), a large-scale altarpiece created for the Church of St Paul’s in Brighton.
Among the first works on display there is also "Buondelmonte's Wedding", chronicling an event that started the conflict between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, and a painting that shows Burne-Jones' attention to details and interest in depicting large crowds of people.
King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid, the painting that brought fame to the artist, is also part of the event: it is based on the legend of an African king who struggles to find love until he sees a humble woman begging on the street outside his window. Among the large-scale paintings there are "Love among the Ruins" (1870-73) and "The Wheel of Fortune" (1883).
Two rooms are dedicated to the artist's most famous narrative cycles – the incomplete story of Perseus and the dreamlike fairy tale of the Sleeping Beauty.
The event also includes "Phyllis and Demophoön" (1870), a painting that caused a scandal, offending the Victorian sensibility, since it featured a full-frontal male nude and the scantily dressed Phyllis was based on Maria Zambaco, lover of the artist.
The exhibition is also a good way to look at Burne-Jones' art applied to objects such as the Graham Piano (1879-80), a piano painted inside and out with scenes from the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, on display alongside embroideries, illustrated books (such as the Kelmscott Chaucer, produced with Morris and published in 1896) and tapestries like "The Arming and Departure of the Knights of the Round Table on the Quest for the Holy Grail" (1890-1894) and "Adoration of the Magi" (1894).
Cartoons and caricatures, drawings, sketches from daily life or portraying invented characters or real ones like Emma De Burgh, famous for having The Last Supper tattooed across her back (in the exhibition there is a drawing made immediately after seeing her at the London Aquarium) provide a much needed interlude between the various paintings
Not everybody will be enchanted by Burne-Jones' works, there is indeed a dichotomy to consider: apart from his works based on legends and fantasy, the exhibition also features stained glass and tapestry, many designed for his friend and fellow social reformer William Morris, as well as portraits, like the ones depicting businessman and MP William Graham and or Lady Windsor.
When you look at the artworks recounting mythological legends or fairytales and compare them with the minimalist portraits like the one of Amy Gaskell (1893), you realise that, in most of his works, Burne-Jones was detached from reality and was taking refuge in invented universes.
Besides, while the themes of his works may vary, the characters all looked the same: in the "Adoration of the Magi" tapestry you can spot an unwelcome rigidity in the figures, a gloominess on their pallid faces and a congested scene behind the characters. But the same thing happens to King Cophetua staring expressionless at the statue-like forlorn looking maid or to the young women in "The Golden Stairs", looking beautiful (even though it proves hard to distinguish between one fair maid and the other…) in long blue-grey tunics, but essentially going nowhere and being used for merely aesthetic purposes, frozen in time and space.
For some critics Burne Jones' art is full of melodrama, but devoid or any warmth, feelings and emotional depth. These are probably the reasons why he fell out of critical favour after his death even though the public kept on liking his works.
A decorator at heart, Burne-Jones is best appreciated with a dose of suspension of disbelief and while admiring the obsessive details in the costumes of his characters or in the background. And while the most cynical among us may probably get a bit bored after seeing too many characters sleeping or looking melancholic, the show may prove a hit with enthusiastic fans of the current epic fantasy sagas in literature and on TV.
Image credits for this post
1. Adoration of the Magi, 1894, tapestry. Manchester Metropolitan University Special Collections
2. Sir Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris by Frederick Hollyer, platinum print, 1874. National Portrait Gallery, London
3. The Calling of St Peter, c. 1857, stained and painted glass. Victoria & Albert Museum
4. The Annunciation and the Adoration of the Magi, 1861, oil paint on 3 canvases. Tate Gallery
5. Love among the Ruins, 1870-3, watercolour, bodycolour and gum arabic on paper. Private collection
6. Phyllis and Demophoon, 1870, watercolour on paper. Birmingham Museums Trust
7. Desiderium, 1873, graphite on paper. Tate Britain
8. Laus Veneris, 1873-8, oil paint on canvas. Laing Art Gallery (Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums)
9. The Briar Wood, 1874-84, oil paint on canvas. The Faringdon Collection Trust
10. King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid, 1884. Tate Gallery
11. The Rose Bower, 1885-90, oil paint on canvas. The Faringdon Collection Trust
12. The Council Chamber, 1885-90, oil paint on canvas. The Faringdon Collection Trust
13. The Garden Court, 1874-84, oil paint on canvas. The Faringdon Collection Trust
14. Portrait of Amy Gaskell , 1893, oil paint on canvas. Private collection
15. Perseus and The Sea Nymphs (The Arming of Perseus), 1877, bodycolour on paper. Southampton City Art Gallery
16. The Golden Stairs, 1880
17. The Rock of Doom, 1885-8, oil paint on canvas. Staatsgalerie Stuttgart
18. The Doom Fulfilled, 1888, oil paint on canvas. Staatsgalerie Stuttgart