Thursday, March 6, 2008

The humble pomegranate

My brain hurts from doing research on the last few blog posts I've written. Yes, it's true. :) So today I thought I'd focus on the delicious fruit, my personal favorite, which has been surrounded by mystique and myth for aeons. The humble pomegranate.

The pomegranate, actually, doesn't feature into many Pre-Raphaelite works, which surprises me. If you know of any examples that I haven't found, please let me know! There is, of course, the very obvious pomegranate held by Jane Morris in Rossetti's Proserpine, shown above.
Rossetti also featured a pomegranate in this sketch of Dante.
William Morris showcased pomegranates in his wallpaper "Blue Fruit."
And his firm featured it in a carpet design (incidentally, I just saw this for the first time and I LOVE it...)

The publishing company that publishes numerous books on Pre-Raphaelites? Is called Pomegranate Books.

But really, that's about it. I'm honestly surprised that such a mythic fruit wasn't more of a reoccurring theme among the P.R.B.
A couple of modern things I had to share....first is this charming (I think) necklace from The Pyramid Collection, featuring a pomegranate with garnets for seeds.
And finally, a blog post for me about pomegranates would not be complete without raising a glass to Pama, my personal favorite alcoholic beverage. As a side rant, I've found that 99% of modern "pomegranate" drinks taste nothing like a pomegranate (more like cranberry). Pama, however, is delicious and definitely reminiscent of the taste of biting into the fruit (well, the seeds). The packaging is also irresistible to me, because the label says things like "for tomorrow's mythmakers, today." Try it...I bet you'll love it! And I definitely could see Swinburne and Rossetti chugging the stuff, were it available back in their day.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ooo, we LOVE Pama! Curtis will have to make you this drink he created with it called a 'Devil's Rose'! YUMMY!

Grace said...

Devil's Rose?

Oooh you now have me VERY intrigued!

Anonymous said...

You know...I'd never really thought about pomegranates and PR art--you really have such a creative mind! I love seeing what you come up with!!! :D

Grace said...

LOL....thanks. It was pretty much an excuse to merge two of my favorite things :)

Edie said...

I need to find Pama here. I went to there website and signed up to get updates.

Grace said...

Edie, once you try it, there's no going back :)

Anonymous said...

All Saint's Church, Cambridge, England is top to toe full of pomegranates and other wonderful flora and fauna....designed by William Morris, hand painted by Frederick Leach and Sons.