Le renouveau médiéval : la quête préraphaélite du Saint Graal et les légendes arthuriennes

Résumé du document

Le Saint Graal est généralement considéré comme une coupe dans laquelle le Christ a bu durant la dernière Cène et avec laquelle Joseph d'Arimathea a récolté le sang du Christ lors de sa crucifixion. Cette signification était introduite dans les légendes arthuriennes, mais elle peut être toute autre dans des sources plus anciennes et certaines plus récentes. Le terme "Graal" vient du latin "gradale", qui signifie un plat apporté à table durant différentes étapes.
Dans la romance médiévale, on disait que le Graal avait été apporté à Glastonbury en Angleterre par Joseph d'Arimathea et ses suivants. Au temps d'Arthur, la quête du Saint Graal était la plus haute poursuite spirituelle et les légendes arthuriennes ont en effet profondément influencé la littérature et l'art au sens large. Dans la peinture anglaise du début de l'ère victorienne, la "fratrie préraphaélite" a proposé une vision originale et des objectifs radicalement nouveaux, afin de donner une véritable renaissance à l'art.

Extraits

[...] Vivian's dress unveils her sensual body, more than if the artist had chosen to represent her naked. Her slender, supple silhouette recalls Rossetti's female figures. Her long russet hair, mixed up with snakes, is rather symbolic in this confrontation between the two protagonists: she reminds the viewer of the monstrous figure of classical mythology, Medusa, who turned those who looked at her to stone. This episode takes place in a green forest, which is deeply mysterious and exuberant, and combines the world of dream, wonder and strangeness to that of reality. [...]

[...] 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. [...]

[...] The passage ends like this: “Madam, I pray you kysse me, and never no more”. sayd the quene, “that shall I never do, but absteyne you from suche werkes” And they departed. Rossetti heightens the drama by setting the scene over King Arthur's tomb, underlining his obsession with the subject of illicit love. Sir Edward BURNE-JONES, The Beguiling of Merlin. This story is taken from the one of Burne-Jones's favourite Arthurian Legend. Merlin had fallen in love with Vivian –also called Nimiane, Nimue or Vivien. [...]

[...] There would be a lot more to say about the Pre-Raphaelites' inspiration in those famous myths. However, you may now understand better the ultimate point of our study: trying to highlight some of the recurrent themes in medieval romance, Pre-Raphaelite paintings and the Victorian society of the time heroism, beauty and honour. Indeed, those very values laid the foundations for the creation of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood itself –portrayed by Ruskin, their defender, as noblest school of painting in England for three hundred centuries”. [...]

[...] Eventually, the last part of our scrutiny shall deal with the image of the medieval couple in Pre-Raphaelite pictures, emphasizing its negative aspects –betrayal and beguiling-, their foundations often laying in the artists' chaotic private lives. I. The Holy Grail as a symbol of chivalric heroism and a metaphor for human quest. Sir Edward BURNE-JONES, The High History of the Holy Graal. This is an illustration used as a frontispiece for a book which was edited in London in 1898, entitled The High History of the Holy Graal. [...]