A Maid in Bedlam

Pandora radio just played me a nice Celtic-style song, and when I looked at the album cover, I was tickled to see how lovely it was.

I really like the border of Morris flowers in addition to the Rossetti artwork.

Happy Birthday, Mr. D.G. Rossetti! Go here for a wonderful post about it.

Millais' Arch

Thanks to a will-be-unnamed-but-totally-rocks source of mine in England, I have been able to watch the absolutely riveting documentary that was just on ITV1 in England a week or so ago, Andrew Lloyd Webber: A Passion for the Pre-Raphaelites. I haven't even finished the series yet, and I'm utterly engrossed.

But tonight as I was watching part of it, I was blown away. Just. Look.





This was Millais' design for a Gothic Arch, made of entwined angels in passionate embrace. I think my heart skipped a beat when I saw this piece. I had never seen it before, and in fact when I immediately paused the video and Googled it, the only images I could find were blurry black and whites. I am utterly smitten.

I've always been, I must confess, a little more in love with Millais' sketches than with his finished art. Don't get me wrong, his art is incredible. But there's something in the freedom of his sketches that just fixates me. This is especially true of his sketches with romantic themes. Something about this design for the gothic arch just feels like the same romantic passion as I've loved in his sketch work.

The story is...apparently this arch design was never actually realized in the 19th century. But a few years ago, according the the narrator Webber, he said that he "thought he'd have some fun" and commission the actual arch to be made. The results....





Gorgeous. Not quite the same as Millais' graceful figures, but still so beautiful. When will Design Toscano offer a reproduction of this piece in resin for my wall?

:)

Pre-Raphaelites in Narnia

My husband and I watched Voyage of the Dawn Treader the other day. What a visually stunning film! It is based on my very favorite Narnia book, so I had to ignore the changes to enjoy the film, but I still found it greatly enjoyable.

Ms. Stephanie, of Pre-Raphaelite Sisterhood, I've found another P.R.B. film sighting for your list! In the scene where Lucy has to read through a magical spellbook, the spell for snow has a very familiar painting on the upper left of the page: Rossetti's Proserpine.

Ellen Terry's Beetle Wing Dress

It's only moderately related to the Pre-Raphaelites, but I have to share a link to this incredible article (pointed out to me by a friend, Traci) about the restoration of actress Ellen Terry's gown for Macbeth, made out of thousands of beetle wings. It is the gown that features in Sargent's famous portrait of Terry, above.

Wordplay in Arts & Crafts

Just wanted to direct you to a post over on my blog for my new house, on the use of text in Arts and Crafts decorating.

Sarah as Persephone

Okay, as a HUGE fan of the movie Labyrinth, I have to share this piece of brilliance.

DeviantArt member Janey-Jane created this great image of Rossetti's Persephone, as Sarah from Labyrinth. I think she did an outstanding job of both making it a likeness of Jennifer Connelly, and also making it quite Rossetti.

I also love how she reinterpreted the pomegranate as a peach, changed the objects in the corner to an owl feather and crystal ball. And apparently the text at the top is the story Sarah starts to tell Toby before he's taken. ("Once upon a time, there was a beautiful young girl whose stepmother always made her stay home with the baby...what no one knew was the King of the goblins had fallen in love with the girl...")

Rock on, Janey-Jane.

Return of the Native

I just finished re-watching the 1994 Hallmark Hall of Fame movie, Return of the Native, starring a younger and breathtakingly beautiful Catherine Zeta-Jones. I first saw this movie when I was 14 years old, and Catherine was one of my first experiences with being absolutely ensorcelled by the beauty of a woman. She is a true Faerie Queen in the film. I remember when I first taped it on VHS and paused the tape to sketch a drawing of her with her hood raised. I still have the artwork.

At one point in the film, there's a lovely vision of Eustacia (CZJ) walking by a riverside with flowers in her hand. The combination of blue gown, bridge, flowers, and river immediately struck me as familiar.


Coincidence? Probably. However, considering the similar fate the character of Eustacia experiences to that of Ophelia, I also would not be shocked to find out that it was an intentional homage or foreshadowing.

At any rate, it's a beautiful film full of romantic visuals that any lover of the Pre-Raphaelites would likely enjoy.