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Edward Burne-Jones: Victorian Artist-Dreamer by Stephen Wildman and John Christian

1999; Scriptoriun Press; Volume: 9; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1353/art.1999.0048

1934-1539

Debra N. Mancoff,

Medieval Literature and History

?6?ARTHURIANA Enide, and several other texts—too many for such a short piece. Jeay argues convincingly that when the 'original' tale of incest and rape is transmuted into a 'courtly' one of adultery and anthropophagy, violence is normalized and even banalized. The essential link between this transformation and that of the poet-lover into a bird, however, is overwhelmed and obscured by the sheer number of texts which are called upon here. The only article in the book to deal head-on with the Arthurian legend is also (entirely coincidentally) one of the best. In 'The Mont St. Michel Giant: Sexual Violence and Imperialism in The Chronicles ofWace and La3mon' Laurie Finke and Martin Shichtman argue that rape in these texts expresses a displaced anxiety about imperialist power as the Norman universe begins to come in contact with other cultures, especially that ofMuslim Spain. Finke and Shichtman's rich contextualization of the period which produced the chronicles is a welcome addition to Arthurian scholarship; the Chronicles cry out for a new historicist treatment which has all too rarely been accorded them. ViolenceAgainst Women suffers from many ofthe flaws common to books generated by conference panels. Several articles do little more than plug new texts into theoretical models established by previous scholars, without adding much to the theoretical debate; others (Jeay's is an example, and so is Jane Chance's 'Gender Subversion and Linguistic Castration in Fifteenth-Century English Translations ofChristine de Pizan') try to do too much in too little space. It is hard not to feel that this would have been a more satisfying book if it had contained fewer articles less regularly divided into bite-sized twenty-page packages. Nonetheless, the collection offers several thoughtprovoking pieces, and encourages all readers to reconsider the 'habits of thought' they bring to bear on medieval texts. MAUD BURNETT MCINFRNEY Haverford College Stephen WiLDMAN and JOHN christian (with essays by alan Crawford and Laurence des cars), Edward Burne-Jones.Victorian Artist-Dreamer, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1998. Pp xi, 361; isbn: o— 87099-858-7. $75.00 (hard), isbn: 0-87099-859-5. $39.95 (pbk.). Exhibition: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 4 June-6 September 1998; Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, Birmingham, England, 17 October, 1998—17 January 1999; Musée D'Orsay, Paris, 1 March-6 June 1999. Exactly one century ago, Belgian Symbolist painter Fernand Khnopff explained his passion for English painting in a letter to his friend Paul Schultze-Naumburg: 'That which demands admiration in the work of a number of English artists is the precise expression ofthe sense of legend' (February 1899, in R.L. Delevoy, Fernand Khnopff, catalogue de l'ouvre, Brussels: 1987, 27). A devoted Angolphile, Khnopffadmired one artist above all: Edward Burne-Jones. Through letters, the two artists forged a deep and sympathetic friendship, exchanging drawings and sharing interests until the REVIEWS161 English artist's death. To Khnopff, who wrote several appreciative analyses of BurneJones 's work during the years 1889 to 1915, no other artist so fully captured that elusive sense oflegend, and it is the lure ofthe legend that draws many visitors to the centenary exhibition Edward Burne-Jones.Victorian Artist-Dreamer. Organized to honor the hundred year anniversary of Edward Burne-Jones's death at age 65 on 17 June 1898, this international exhibition is currently circulating among three major venues: the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery in England (the artist's birth place), and the Musée D'Orsay in Paris. No other Victorian artist has enjoyed such wide recognition in recent years, and the rich and varied exhibition, expertly curated by Stephen Wildman and John Christian, with more than 150 works ofart including paintings, drawings, tapestries, stained glass, and other decorative designs (some objects appear at only one venue), mark him as deserving ofthe attention. A catalogue has been published in conjunction with the exhibition. It features three concise essays—? Critical Somersault' by Christian, 'Burne-Jones as Decorative Artist' by Alan Crawford, and 'Burne-Jones and France' by Laurence des Cars—as well as an extensive catalogue of the works in the exhibition...