Arthurian legend in fine and applied art of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries

Poulson, Christine

Abstract

This thesis deals with the treatment of Arthurian legend in fine and applied art of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. An introduction briefly describes the revival of interest in Arthurian legend in the early nineteenth century. The text which follows is divided into two parts, the first concerned with works of art based on Malory's Morte D'Arthur and the second with works based on Tennyson's Idylls of the King.
Part I consists of five chapters, the first of which discusses Dyce's frescos in the Queen's Robing Room. Chapter Two deals with the treatment of Arthurian legend by the Pre-Raphaelites up to and including the Moxon Tennyson. Chapter Three is concerned firstly with the Oxford Murals and secondly with contrasting the attitudes of Rossetti and Dyce to the illustration of Arthurian legend. Chapters Four and Five discuss the Arthurian work of Burne-Jones and Morris.
Part II begins with Chapter Six which examines the ways in which Tennyson reworked the Arthurian legends in Idylls of the King. Chapter Seven discusses 'The Lady of Shalott' and the 1859 Idylls as a source of sentimental and femme fatale subjects. Chapter Eight examines, firstly, Tennyson's treatment of the Grail Quest and the extent to which artists used Tennyson as a source for subjects on this theme, and secondly, illustration of the heroic and chivalric aspects of the Idylls, in particular, Arthur himself and the story of Gareth.
Two appendices follow the text. The first catalogues all works on Arthurian subjects discovered in the course of research for this thesis. These are listed by author; entries include, where known, the date of the work, the dimensions, the signature, the location and where the work is reproduced. Appendix II lists these works according to subject, then in chronological order within each category.

Citation

Poulson, C. (1986). Arthurian legend in fine and applied art of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries