Medieval Renewal: The Pre-Raphaelites' Quest for the Holy Grail and Arthurian Legends

Résumé du document

The Holy Grail is usually considered to be the cup from which Christ drank at the Last Supper and the one used by Joseph of Arimathea to catch his blood as he hung on the cross. This significance was introduced into the Arthurian legends. In earlier sources and in some later ones, the Grail is something very different. The term "grail" comes from the Latin "gradale", which meant a dish brought to the table during various stages. In medieval romance, the Grail was said to have been brought to Glastonbury in Britain by Joseph of Arimathea and his followers. In the time of Arthur, the quest for the Grail was the highest spiritual pursuit, and indeed, Arthurian legends on a larger scale deeply influenced literature and art in its broadest sense. In the stale atmosphere of the early-Victorian English painting, the so-called Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood proposed an original outlook and radically new objectives, sharing the ultimate purpose to give a genuine rebirth to art. They rejected Raphael's conventions, and sought inspiration in the paintings of the primitive Italian masters, a singular attitude which lays at the very origin of their name.

Extraits

[...] Burne-Jones used a passage of a text from the late medieval French Romance of Merlin as his inspiration. In this story, as in the painting under study here, Vivian is a femme fatale figure. She beguiles and lures a powerless Merlin to his fate as they walk together in the forest of Broceliande. The position of the two characters, which is physically very harmonious, betrays Merlin's captivation at first sight. Vivian's dress unveils her sensual body, more than if the artist had chosen to represent her naked. [...]

[...] A great plastic sensibility emanates from this painting. The viewer's eye, in the first place, is attracted by the position of the two protagonists, leaning over the tomb. The knight's spear is mirrored by the queen's veil, and both form two of the sides of a triangle, meeting at a vertex materialized by their adjacent faces. An intense gaze unites Lancelot and Guinevere it did for Merlin and Vivian-, and it looks as though they are going to kiss above Arthur's recumbent figure. [...]

[...] In fact, there is a clear parallelism between the folds of the Queen's dress and the tangled bed and curtains. The composition of the painting, made up of many vertical and horizontal lines, throw the Queen and the different pieces of furniture into relief. The painting is more than a mere portrait of Morris's wife under the features of Queen Guinevere. Actually, many elements of the piece of art elicit the viewer's interrogations. Does the disarranged bed symbolize Guinevere's secret –namely, her guilty love for Lancelot-, or did William Morris want to mention his love for his wife in a highly sensuous manner? [...]

[...] This is this last idea that elicits from this piece of work dazzling, staggering picture. The legend tells that Joseph of Arimathea had hidden the Holy Grail in a well. This element is to be noticed on the right hand side of the painting. The scene in its entirely is rather confused and ambiguous, probably because of this flashing apparition of the Holy Grail. The religious undertone of the scene is significant. However, uncertainties remain as regards the identity of the protagonists represented. [...]

[...] Actually, the painting is centred on the maiden as well as on the Holy Grail. The bright, warm colours even seem to unify the cup and the young women, sharing gold and red features, giving them uniqueness and a kind of sacred quality. The high seriousness of the subject is epitomized in this painting, the maiden, modeled by Jane Morris, holds the Grail with one hand, while adopting a gesture of blessing with the other, which is also an important feature of the picture. [...]