Sunday, October 24, 2010

Morgan le Fay

(click to enlarge)
Anthony Frederick Sandys
(English, 1829-1904)
Morgan le Fay, 1864
Oil on panel
Sandys's subject, Morgan le Fay . . . was the queen of Avalon, who in Thomas Malory's Le Morte Darthur was so jealous of the esteem of which her half-brother King Arthur was held that she attempted to use her powers of witchcraft and sorcery to murder him. In Sandys's painting . . . she is seen weaving a magic lamp and chanting spells over a garment that she has woven for Arthur which, when he puts it on, she intends to burn him to death.
from The Age of Rossetti, Burne-Jones & Watts, edited by Andrew Wilton and Robert Upstone

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