DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61290#0169
MOXON’S “TENNYSON
137
Arthur Hughes, reflected vividly the influence of
Blake. Rossetti’s “ Maids of Elfinmere ” were of
his most angelic-mediaeval type, ascetically beau-
tiful, and yet, if the phrase may be permitted, with
a certain sensuous severity of look, a delicate and
half-mystic passion, as of pure spirits newly wakened
to the tenderness of the flesh.
A more important experiment in the same direc-
tion was made in 1857, when Rossetti, Millais, and
Holman Hunt appeared among the illustrators
of Moxon’s edition of “Tennyson.” Intimately
charmed as they had all been with the “ Idylls of
the King,” and with such entirely “Pre-Raphaelite”
poetry as “The Lady of Shalott,” the draughtsmen
could hardly have found a more congenial sphere
for design. The volume affords one of the most
interesting records of the transitional work of the
three painters. Woolner’s fine medallion of the
young laureate formed the frontispiece. Then fol-
lowed Millais’s “ Mariana”—a composition wholly
distinct from, and far inferior to, his “ Mariana in
the Moated Grange,” which had been shown in
the Academy of 1851. The face of this Mariana
is hidden in her hands as she turns with bowed
head from the window, and from the sunset that
mocks her grief with its imperturbable glory heed-
less and afar. Much less conventional in spirit
is the passionate, strained figure of Rossetti’s
“ Mariana in the South,” crouching on her un-
137
Arthur Hughes, reflected vividly the influence of
Blake. Rossetti’s “ Maids of Elfinmere ” were of
his most angelic-mediaeval type, ascetically beau-
tiful, and yet, if the phrase may be permitted, with
a certain sensuous severity of look, a delicate and
half-mystic passion, as of pure spirits newly wakened
to the tenderness of the flesh.
A more important experiment in the same direc-
tion was made in 1857, when Rossetti, Millais, and
Holman Hunt appeared among the illustrators
of Moxon’s edition of “Tennyson.” Intimately
charmed as they had all been with the “ Idylls of
the King,” and with such entirely “Pre-Raphaelite”
poetry as “The Lady of Shalott,” the draughtsmen
could hardly have found a more congenial sphere
for design. The volume affords one of the most
interesting records of the transitional work of the
three painters. Woolner’s fine medallion of the
young laureate formed the frontispiece. Then fol-
lowed Millais’s “ Mariana”—a composition wholly
distinct from, and far inferior to, his “ Mariana in
the Moated Grange,” which had been shown in
the Academy of 1851. The face of this Mariana
is hidden in her hands as she turns with bowed
head from the window, and from the sunset that
mocks her grief with its imperturbable glory heed-
less and afar. Much less conventional in spirit
is the passionate, strained figure of Rossetti’s
“ Mariana in the South,” crouching on her un-