The Song of Solomon - 'Awake, O North Wind!'1876 Accession number: 1927P463 Pencil on stiff toned paper. Width: 214 mm Height: 356 mm InformationInscribed with text from the Vulgate (also known as 'The Song of Songs', 'Canticles' or 'Song of Lebanon ['Sponsa di Libano'], Chapter IV, verse 16. Burne-Jones' absorbing interest in the linear patterns created by heavy swathes of drapery is even more apparent in his smaller-scale decorative work of the mid-1870's. A similar power of linear invention was diverted into a project of 1876, described by the artist as 'five designs from the Song of Solomon - for paintings on panel some day'.This set of large pencil drawings has also been associated with his support of the Royal School of Needlework, which opened in 1872. Through its foundress, his friend Madeline Wyndham, Burne-Jones provided two designs, 'Poesis' and 'Musica', to be worked in outline with brown crewel on linen. These proving both successful and popular, the 'Song of Solomon' series was then taken up, although only one full-size embroidery is known. There are also other versions of this composition: one. formerly in the collection of Frances Graham Horner, that is illustrated in the 1 July 1975 sale at Sotheby's , Belgravia (29); the other, a large-scale watercolour and bodycolour painting, dated 1891, now in the collection of the Lady Lever Art Gallery. For a study of one of the zephrys in the picture, see the autotype in Birmingham's collection, after the drawing also in the Lady Lever Art Gallery. This project of 1876 was described by Burne-Jones as, 'five designs from the Song of Solomon - for paintings on panel some day'. This particular scene was executed in both embroidery by the Royal School of Needlework, and in watercolour by the artist in 1891 (now in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool). This drawing is the design for the third composition, depicting Solomon's bride of Lebanon. Malcolm Bell, Burne-Jones's first chronicler, identifies the likely sources of these highly formalized, hieratic compositions, in engravings by Baldini and Pollaiuolo after Botticelli, especially the edition of Dante published by Niccolo di Lorenzo della Magra in 1481. The animation of 'Sponsa di Libano' is a welcome relief to the otherwise rather solemn groups of figures: even with the sharp bright draughtsmanship of a sheet like this, one can understand why in 1878 the 'Art Journal' expressed the hope that Burne-Jones would one day discover "that all mankind, especially womankind, do not walk around the world like hired mutes at a funeral."
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