Studio: international art (45.1909)

Tapestries designed by Sir E. Burne-Jones and J. H. Dearie

The exception referred to was a tapestry from
Morris’s own design. It is sometimes spoken of
as The Seasons, though Morris himself named
it The Orchard. It comprises four figures
holding between them an outstretched scroll, with
Morris’s verses, “ 'Midst bitten mead .... spring
to be," inscribed upon it. The hieratic character
of the figures, robed in albs, stoles and copes,
shows them to have been intended, in the first
instance, for a definitely ecclesiastical purpose.
They were, in fact, designed for, and carried out
as, a painted frieze in the nave of Jesus College
Chapel, Cambridge. The figures had to be en-
larged somewhat to adapt them to the scale of
the tapestry, but otherwise are identical in outline
with the earlier work. The Orchard tapestry,
finished in time to be shown at the exhibition of
the Arts and Crafts Society at the end of 1893,
was subsequently acquired, with another, entitled
Angeli lapidantes in 1898, for the Victoria and
Albert Museum. The last-named is an adaptation

of the cartoon for a painted window, designed in
1878, for the south quire aisle in Salisbury
Cathedral. Another cartoon, of David giving
directions to Solomon for the building of the Temple,
designed originally for a window in Trinity Church,
Boston, U.S.A., was recently executed in tapestry,
with remarkably successful effect, for an Australian
order.

Four details are also given from the “ Holy
Grail ” series of tapestries, a favourite one, whereof
different sections have several times been made in
replica. Three such pieces, executed for Mr.
Laurence Hodson, of Wolverhampton, were sold
a year or two ago at Christie’s, and have since
been acquired for the Birmingham Corporation
Art Gallery. Others again were made for the late
Mr. McCulloch’s house in Queen’s Gate.

Another subject, The Star of Bethlehem,
originally designed for a tapestry hanging at
Exeter College Chapel, Oxford, has also been re-
peated more than once. A replica of it, enriched

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“ THE FAILURE OF SIR GAWAINE
(“HOLY grail” SERIES)

DESIGNED BY SIR EDWARD BURNE-JONES
EXECUTED BY MORRIS & COMPANY, LTD-

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