Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Edward Burne-Jones - The Mill



1882
Oil on canvas
35.83 × 77.56 in
Victoria and Albert Museum

The dancers were modelled by (left to right) Maria Zambaco, Marie Spartali Stillman and Aglaia Coronio.

http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/paintings/galleries/further/essay/pre-raphaelites/index.html
Begun in 1870 and completed in 1882, Burne-Jones's painting The Mill depicts the three Graces dancing to the music of Apollo. The models were friends and relatives of Constantine Ionides, who commissioned the painting. His cousin Mary Zambaco, who posed for the woman on the far left, was Burne-Jones's lover.

The Mill displays what Ruskin termed 'the subtlest mythologies of Greek worship and Christian Romance', as well as acquaintance with Giorgione's poetic scenes and Botticelli's Primavera. 13. In 1891 Burne-Jones met the young Aubrey Beardsley, and encouraged him to pursue an artistic career

The painting belonged to Aglaia's brother Constantine and is now part of the Ionides collection at the V&A.

2 comments:

Juan A. said...

Again I give thanks for your blog!!

Hermes said...

Its a fascinating painting and the more you dig into their history, the more fascinating they become to me.