a pageant truly play'd,(Info from Pre Raphaelite Art blog.)
Between the pale complexion of true love
And the red glow of scorn and proud disdain
Time and Death having traveled together through the ages, have run their course and are at length overthrown. Love alone arises on immortal wings, triumphantly, with outspread arms to the eternal skies.
All seem'd to sleep – the timid hare
On form, the stag upon his lair,
The eagle in her eyrie fair
Between the earth and sky.
But what of pictured rich and rare
Could win De Vaux's eye-glance, where,
Deep slumbering in the fatal chair,
He saw King Arthur's child!
Doubt, and anger, and dismay,
From her brow had pass'd away,
Forgot was that fell tourney-day,
For, as she slept, she smiled:
It seem'd, that the repentant Seer
Her sleep of many a hundred year
With gentle dreams beguiled.
After the reading of his sentence, the constable escorted More to an awaiting barge, which carried him the short ways down the Thames toward the Tower of London. The party disembarked the barge at Old Swan Stairs. An armed guard led More, dressed in a coarse woolen gown, up Old Swan Lane and down Thames Street. As More and his guards approached the Tower, his daughter Margaret knelt to receive his blessing, then embraced and kissed him. More then was escorted through the large crowd back to his cell, where he would spend the last six days of his life.Account found here.
If music be the food of love, play on;I wonder if the whole quote is supposed to apply to the painting. I'm still not sure of the expression on the girl's face, but she seems rather sad. And the man just looks evil. But it's a gorgeous and very interesting painting, so enlarge it and check it out!
Give me excess of it, that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.
This painting was inspired by lines from Tennyson’s ‘The Princess’ about a swallow flying south with a message from the poet to his beloved. She sits in a richly painted, intricately decorated interior awaiting the message from the bird, which is seen through the open window.Can you see the bird in the window? I doubt it, because the picture is so blurry. But fear not! You can see the painting and zoom in on all it's awesome details here at the museum's site! Definitely check it out! Not only can you see the bird in the window, you can also see every petal on the roses, the words on the pages of the open book, the design on her dress, and the decorations on her harp! I hope to post more paintings like this soon!
