Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898) was arguably the most eminent artist of the Victorian period, having mastered various art forms. He particularly excelled as a stained-glass maker; his watercolour of Lot and his Daughters (1874), from our collection, is a window design that exemplifies his masterful and refreshing approach to stained glass art.
Born in 1833, Burne-Jones had a comfortable upbringing, but was, in many ways, a deprived child. Having lost his mother at just six days old, he was raised in an isolated religious household by his melancholic father and an unstimulating housekeeper. Seeking solace from his bleak childhood, a young Burne-Jones would immerse himself in the arts in his free time, particularly drawing. As a young adult, he was destined to be a priest. However, in 1855, he abandoned his Theology degree at the University of Oxford to pursue a career in art.
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| Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898), Cupid delivering Psyche, c. 1867 © Trustees of the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery |
Initially, Burne-Jones focused solely on painting, inspired heavily by the artistic philosophy of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He continued to paint for the rest of his life, becoming one of the most celebrated painters of the Brotherhood (our collection’s Cupid delivering Psyche is a fine example of his Pre-Raphaelite work). But in 1861 he expanded his repertoire to more artisanal practices, notably succeeding with his stained-glass work. He and close friend William Morris founded Morris & Co., a company that manufactured furniture, jewellery and stained glass, amongst other decorative arts. He did this for two main reasons. It was common practice for artists of his time to pursue interdisciplinary careers and master several crafts. Secondly, and more practically, it provided him with a steadier income than his paintings, which, though popular, could not generate a consistent income for a young artist yet to firmly establish his name in the industry. The artists at Morris & Co. proved to be fundamental in the Arts and Crafts movement, which sought to inject decorative and aesthetic richness into a Victorian society that they considered to be over-industrial and drab.
Stained glass windows were highly sought after in Victorian times. This was because Gothic Revivalism became the leading style of church architecture in the wake of the Church of England’s 1833 Oxford Movement. The movement’s leaders felt that the Church’s rituals were devoid of grace, and, therefore, encouraged a return to the traditional Catholic style of worship; a visually opulent, public ritual centred around the Eucharist. Stained glass was thus crucial to Gothic Revival architects, who were, from then on, more often tasked with recreating the awe-inspiring, icon-littered settings of Medieval masses.
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Edward Burne-Jones
(1833-1898), Lot and his Daughters, 1874 |
The demand for stained glass in the 1870s certainly shows in Burne-Jones’ artistic output; between 1872 and 1876, he produced 270 cartoons for stained glass designs. In this design for the biblical story of Lot and his Daughters, Lot, who lives in the sinful city of Sodom, is warned by angels that God is going to burn the city down, and so flees with his wife and two daughters. As they escape, the angels tell the family to not look back at the city. This, however, is ignored by Lot’s wife, who consequently gets turned into a pillar of salt.
The scene’s narrative enables Burne-Jones to fully demonstrate his skill as a stained-glass designer. Decorative art historian Alan Crawford says that Burne-Jones’ figures are either ‘dancing or statuesque’. Lot’s wife is undoubtedly exemplary of the latter, depicted like a classical sculpture. She stands in contrapposto, a technique very popular with classical sculptors to make their figure stand with their weight on one side to create a natural, slight s-shaped twist in their pose. And, while Lot and his daughters are not exactly ‘dancing’, they are certainly captured in a moment of dramatic movement.
Burne-Jones was renowned for his drawing of drapery. This is evident in his use of another classical technique; modelling lines. These are the lines formed from grooves in the drapery that give depth and definition to a figure. They are used expertly by Burne-Jones to show the tightening of the drapery around the knees of his figures. This reveals the contrapposto stance of the wife, and the bending knees of Lot and the daughters to emphasise their hasty escape from Sodom. It is no coincidence that Burne-Jones was painting such dramatized, classicised figures in 1874. Three years prior he visited Italy, where he spent hours on his back in the Sistine Chapel. Using an opera glass, he meticulously studied Michelangelo’s figures.
Designing and making stained glass in the 19th century was a relatively straightforward process. While Medieval stained-glass makers had to piece together fragments of coloured glass between thin strips of lead in a mosaic-like fashion, advances in technology meant that large glass panels could now simply be painted with coloured enamel. This allowed Burne-Jones to use glass like a canvas, and easily implement his painterly techniques into his designs.
Lot and his Daughters was never realised. It was a design for a Morris & Co. window in St. Paul’s Cathedral, Kolkata, to commemorate Lord Mayo, Viceroy of India, who was assassinated in 1872. In the completed window, however, are examples of how Burne-Jones was able to translate the above-mentioned techniques from his highly sophisticated designs into their intended material.
Written by Tom MacKinnon, Curatorial Volunteer
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