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.

Music of the Spheres, Continued

Continuing yesterday's theme of Pre-Raphaelites and music, I wanted to post about two incredible musicians who are very reminiscent of the Pre-Raphaelites both in look and musical mood.

First is Laurie Ann Haus, a singer with stunning Waterhouse-like looks who is the lead singer for the group Todesbonden. Laurie has a beautiful soprano voice that lends itself to many different musical explorations.


Second is Ariel Tebben of Ariel Rose Music, a vocalist and musician whose latest album, 'Verticordia,' was directly inspired by Pre-Raphaelite music.

Is Nothing Sacred?

The other day, I saw this graphic on another person's MySpace page, and it was like a car accident I couldn't look away from. I was both appalled and giggling my head off at the ridiculousness of the image (to me the best part is the glitter)

But it shouldn't be surprising that a glitter graphic was made of this painting. Out of all of the Pre-Raphaelite artworks, I would argue that the two with the greatest modern popularity among the hoi polloi are The Lady of Shalott and The Accolade. Countless people who are interested in the medieval or fantastical in the slightest will have either one or both of these artworks displayed somewhere in their homes (including my own home, I can't lie!)

The attraction of The Accolade goes beyond prints of the image, however. I admit to being somewhat obsessed over weddings and wedding trends, especially medieval-themed weddings (I am planning my own wedding too), and over the years I have discovered that of all the medieval wedding gowns, the hottest commodity, and the most requested style, is "The Accolade Gown." Google it. Go ahead. You'll find countless interpretations of the dress by numerous seamstresses, some done more successfully than others. Of course, to re-do this gown precisely would likely cost a lot of money, with the broad band of embroidery on the hem, and the jeweled-plate girdle, but there are many relatively low-price options out there that are perfectly stunning as well.

My personal favorite is done by Rossetti Costumes (love the name, and they are my absolute favorite gown/costume shoppe I've found online). Their use of sari embroidery on the hem I feel comes closest to the original gown look (although I wish there was a vertical strap on that girdle).

The popularity of the gown as a wedding gown probably comes partially from the popularity of the art itself, partially from the extremely romantic mood of the painting, and partially from the fact that the dress is very much a straight-forward idea of the medieval gown, done in white.

Have you seen any other famous Pre-Raphaelite style gowns done as wedding dresses? Let me know!

Flickr: A wonderful place

I honestly adore Flickr. Not only as a place to put my own pictures to share them with family and friends, but as a general resource. Planning a vacation? Do a Flickr search for the location you want to visit. I also love doing general keyword searches related to the Pre-Raphaelites on Flickr. You can find some really fascinating things that way. Today's general keywords were....The Lady of Shalott. Here are my finds.

Above is a gorgeous photograph of the Lady of Shalott taken by Henry Peach Robinson in 1861.

Apparently somewhere out there there's a full-size statue of the Lady of Shalott. How creative!

And my favorite find of the day is a gorgeous pendant by artist Kelly Morgen. I have gone to her website now, and drooled all over my keyboard over her gorgeous works! Her headpieces and initial pendants are my favorites.

I know, I know...this blog is a week old, and I've already had two posts about The Lady of Shalott. I promise to be more diverse. I just consider The Lady of Shalott, Ophelia, and La Belle Dame Sans Merci to be the holy trinity of Pre-Raphaelite subject matter.

Fantasy Artists Love Pre-Raphaelites

Here's another post making an observation about a modern cultural genre that seems to love the Pre-Raphaelites still. I am referring to fantasy art, or specifically, fantasy/sci fi dust jacket art.

I'll be honest and tell you that I judge books by their covers. In my opinion, *for the most part* (there are always exceptions) if a book is excellent enough to catch a publisher's eye, they'll take the time to have an appealing illustration on the cover. And along the same vein, nothing turns me off faster to a book than to have a cover that blatantly rips off a specific Pre-Raphaelite artwork without giving it full credit. I should make it clear that many artists give small nods to Pre-Raphaelite style or influence in their art, and I absolutely love that. And as another caveat, perhaps the artists of these covers do acknowledge the Pre-Raphaelite influence in liner notes somewhere. But here are a couple of examples of the nail-on-a-chalkboard covers:

Guenevere: Queen of the Summer Country. Actually a pretty good book. But....


...The Bridesmaid by Millais. If you're going to do an illustration this close to the original, why not just reproduce the original on the cover?


I started out with a mild example, but here's the illustration that really frustrated me when I first saw it.

A Clash of Kings cover illustration. Come on now....change the outfits slightly, and it's a blatant copy of...
The Accolade by Leighton

with touches of....

Miriamne Leaving The Judgement Seat of Herod by Waterhouse (the stairs, gold and white lion, reclining figure on a throne in the background)

Some people may find this kind of homage to be a totally respectful modern interpretation of the Pre-Raphaelites. But frankly, I feel it's unfair to the original artists. It's little better than making an exact copy of the original and passing it off as one's own.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are artists at work today whose art very clearly shows the influence of Pre-Raphaelite techniques and moods, but are completely new compositions. Examples of these are...
Elegy for Darkness: The Lady of Shalott by Giancola


and many artworks by the amazing Kinuko Craft (my personal favorite living artist)


So what do you think? Am I being too harsh on those artists who use specific Pre-Raphaelite art as a launching point for their compositions? Or do you agree?

Singers Love the Lady of Shalott

Why do so many singers love the Lady of Shalott? Several months ago I got it into my head to try to recreate the famous Waterhouse artwork in a photographic self-portrait (I haven't yet tried it), and searched the internet to see if any other photographer/model had done so, with no luck. I did, however, discover that several musicians have interpreted the artwork for their CD covers or music videos.

A few examples?

Of course, there's Loreena McKennitt, who has been my favorite singer for 14 years, and through whom I discovered the Pre-Raphaelites in the first place. She sings a version of the Tennyson poem.



Enya as the Lady of Shalott


A Fine Frenzy as the Lady of Shalott (a bit more of a stretch, but...boat, white dress?)


Emily Ovenden of the group Celtic Legend, in her music video "The Boatman"


And Patti Rothberg on the cover of her album "Candleabra Cadabra" (album title is cleverly written in the place where Waterhouse wrote the Lady's name on the boat)


I keep seeing new examples of singers using the Lady of Shalott as inspiration, so I'm sure there are more out there. Perhaps it's the fact that the Lady herself was a singer, with her voice as the only means by which her art could be expressed to others when she was trapped in the tower. Perhaps those musicians who use the Waterhouse art as a model don't even give it that much thought. But it is deliciously ironic.