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Paolo and Francesca

Artist: Unknown, after Gustave Doré (French, 1832-1883)

Date: ca. 1862

Medium: Coloured pencils and watercolour with touches of white gouache

Collection: National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia

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She Walks in Beauty

By Lord Byron (George Gordon)

She walks in beauty, like the night Of cloudless climes and starry skies; And all that’s best of dark and bright Meet in her aspect and her eyes; Thus mellowed to that tender light Which heaven to gaudy day denies.

One shade the more, one ray the less, Had half impaired the nameless grace Which waves in every raven tress, Or softly lightens o’er her face; Where thoughts serenely sweet express, How pure, how dear their dwelling-place.

And on that cheek, and o’er that brow, So soft, so calm, yet eloquent, The smiles that win, the tints that glow, But tell of days in goodness spent, A mind at peace with all below, A heart whose love is innocent!

Art by Amanda Cass

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Miranda

Artist: John William Waterhouse (English, 1849–1917)

Date: 1875

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Private collection

Description

In a foreground of sea-shore Miranda, lightly draped, is seated on a rock, watching with clasped hands and partly averted face the brave ship tossing in the offing; the blue sea breaks unheeded on the sand, her eyes being wholly absorbed by the vessel, which is yet to suffer through the magic of Prospero… satisfying potency of colour and a finely graduated brilliance of illumination give admirable force and relief to the figure.’ (J.A. Blaikie, ‘J.W. Waterhouse, A.R.A.’, In Magazine of Art, 1886, p.3

The plays of Shakespeare were among the greatest sources of inspiration for John William Waterhouse, whose depictions of Ophelia are world famous. The present picture was Waterhouse’s first depiction of a heroine from Shakespeare and only his second exhibit at the Royal Academy. The painting was hailed as a major rediscovery in 2004 when it was found in a private collection in Scotland, having been lost for 131 years. It was a known painting and reproduced in Anthony Hobson’s seminal book on the artist published in 1989 but the image was reversed and in black and white and conveyed little of the quiet beauty of the picture.

Miranda depicts a scene of the artist’s own invention which precedes the opening of Shakespeare’s play. On a sandy beach, strewn with seashells and seaweed Miranda, the fifteen-year-old daughter of Prospero, sits alone and gazes out over the waves, her eyes fixed on the far horizon where the sails of a ship can be seen. Most artists painted Miranda witnessing the destruction of the ship carrying her eventual lover Ferdinand. Much later in his life this was the scene that Waterhouse himself painted on two occasions. However as a young man, he chose to depict a more unusual and more touching subject of the pensive Miranda awaiting the ship on the island to which she has been exiled for twelve years, as the ominous storm-clouds gather.

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A Vision of Fiammetta

Artist: Dante Gabriel Rossetti (English, 1828–1882)

Date: 1878

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Private Collection

Description

The painting was one half of one of Rossetti's "double works", accompanying his Ballads and Sonnets (1881). Maria Spartali Stillman modelled for the painting. The subject of painting is Boccaccio's muse named Fiammetta.

The frame of the painting is inscribed with three texts: the sonnet by Boccaccio entitled "On his Last Sight of Fiammetta," which inspired the painting; Rossetti's translation of it, and his own poem mirroring the painting:

Behold Fiammetta, shown in Vision here.

Gloom-girt 'mid Spring-flushed apple-growth she stands; And as she sways the branches with her hands, Along her arm the sundered bloom falls sheer, In separate petals shed, each like a tear; While from the quivering bough the bird expands His wings. And lo! thy spirit understands Life shaken and shower'd and flown, and Death drawn near.

All stirs with change. Her garments beat the air: The angel circling round her aureole Shimmers in flight against the tree's grey bole: While she, with reassuring eyes most fair, A presage and a promise stands; as 'twere

On Death's dark storm the rainbow of the Soul.

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William and Margaret from Percy's 'Reliques of Ancient English Poetry'

Artist: Joseph Wright of Derby (English, 1734–1797)

Date: c. 1785

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, United States

Description

This painting represents the devastation wrought by the fickleness of youthful love. William, the man in bed, had given his lover Margaret cause to think they would marry, but the very next day she saw him marry another. She promptly died of grief. On William’s wedding night, Margaret appeared to him in a dream at the foot of his bed. She was dressed in her winding sheet (or burial cloth) to announce her death. William hastened to confirm his dream the next morning and, finding Margaret dead, died the same day stricken with remorse. The tragic story comes from an ancient poem published in Thomas Percy’s Reliques of Ancient English Poetry (1766). As the poem says: “Fair Margaret dyed for pure true love, / Sweet William dyed for sorrow.”

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Hamlet and Ophelia

Artist: Hugues Merle (French, 1822–1881)

Date: 1873

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Private Collection

Ophelia

Ophelia s a character in William Shakespeare's drama Hamlet (1599–1601). She is a young noblewoman of Denmark, the daughter of Polonius, sister of Laertes and potential wife of Prince Hamlet. Due to Hamlet's actions, Ophelia ultimately enters into a state of madness that leads to her drowning.

Prince Hamlet

Prince Hamlet is the title character and protagonist of William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet (1599–1601). He is the Prince of Denmark, nephew to the usurping Claudius, and son of King Hamlet, the previous King of Denmark. At the beginning of the play, he is conflicted whether, and how, to avenge the murder of his father, and struggles with his own sanity along the way. By the end of the tragedy, Hamlet has caused the deaths of Polonius, Laertes, Claudius, and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two acquaintances of his from childhood. He is also indirectly involved in the deaths of his love Ophelia (drowning) and of his mother Gertrude (mistakenly poisoned by Claudius).

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Midsummer Eve

Artist: Edward Robert Hughes (British, 1851–1914)

Date: 1908

Medium: Oil painting

Collection: Private Collection

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Daphnis and Chloe

Artist: Louise Hersent (French, 1784–1862)

Date: 19th century

Medium: Oil painting

Daphnis and Chloe

Daphnis and Chloe is a Greek pastoral novel written during the Roman Empire, the only known work of second-century Hellenistic romance writer Longus.

It is set on the Greek isle of Lesbos, where scholars assume the author to have lived. Its style is rhetorical and pastoral; its shepherds and shepherdesses are wholly conventional, but the author imparts human interest to this idealized world. Daphnis and Chloe resembles a modern novel more than its chief rival among Greek erotic romances does, the Aethiopica of Heliodorus, which is remarkable more for its plot than for its characterization.

The Painting

Daphnis and Chloe, are enjoying a picnic in a bucolic countryside. The goats in the background are a reference to the god Pan who saved Chloe when she was kidnapped by bandits from a nearby city.

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Imogen Found in the Cave of Belarius

Artist: George Dawe (English, 1781–1829)

Date: Exhibited 1809

Medium: Oil paint on canvas

Collection: Tate Britain, United Kingdom

Description

George Dawe depicts a scene from Shakespeare’s play Cymbeline. Imogen – the heroine and daughter of Cymbeline, the ancient king of Britain – escapes court and disguises herself as a young man. Here, Dawe shows the moment when the character Belarius (left) and Imogen’s two long-lost brothers (right) discover her in a cave. They believe she is dead, but she has actually just drunk a sleeping potion.

Dawe mainly painted portraits, but here ventures into ‘history painting’ (images of biblical, mythological, literary or historical subjects). This was regarded as the highest genre of painting at the time and indicates Dawe’s ambitions as an artist. With its high-minded literary theme and dramatic lighting, this painting was meant to stand out when it was first exhibited at the British Institution in 1809.

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The Combat of the Giaour and Hassan

Artist: Eugène Delacroix (French, 1798–1863)

Date: 1826

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States

Description

This colorful scene was inspired by a poem from Lord Byron’s “Oriental tales,” a popular series of romances.

Delacroix completed his first painting of the combat of Giaour and Hassan, showing the two on horseback, fighting in a gorge. A Turk escorting Hassan kneels beside the Giaour's horse, trying to cut its legs with his knife.

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The Flight of Madeline and Porphyro (The Eve of St. Agnes)

Artist: William Holman Hunt (English, 1827–1910

Date: 1847-1857

Medium: Oil on plate

Collection: Walker Art Gallery Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom

Description

William Holman Hunt, like his fellow Pre-Raphaelites, was deeply influenced by the romantic poetry of Keats, in particular The Eve of St. Agnes, a 42 stanza tale of martyrdom and virgin love, published in 1820. Hunt’s painting Flight of Madeline and Porphyro depicts the two final stanzas of the poem, where the two lovers flee into the night. The painting impressed audiences at the 1848 Royal Academy Exhibition so much that Rossetti sought out Hunt and inducted him into the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, beginning a friendship and long standing collaboration.

Final stanzas of The Eve of St. Agnes by John Keats, 1819:

XLI. They glide, like phantoms, into the wide hall; Like phantoms, to the iron porch, they glide; Where lay the Porter, in uneasy sprawl, With a huge empty flaggon by his side; The wakeful bloodhound rose, and shook his hide, But his sagacious eye an inmate owns: By one, and one, the bolts full easy slide: - The chains lie silent on the footworn stones; - The key turns, and the door upon its hinges groan.

XLII. And they are gone: ay, ages long ago These lovers fled away into the storm. That night the Baron dreamt of many a woe, And all his warrior-guests, with shade and form Of witch, and demon, and large coffin-worm, Were long be-nightmar’d. Angela the old Died palsy-twitch’d, with meagre face deform; The Beadsman, after thousand aves told, For aye unsought for slept among his ashes cold.

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A Midsummer's Night Dream

Artist: John Simmons (British, 1823–1876)

Date: 1873

Medium: Watercolour

Collection: Private collection

Description

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy play written by William Shakespeare in about 1595 or 1596. The play is set in Athens, and consists of several subplots that revolve around the marriage of Theseus and Hippolyta. One subplot involves a conflict among four Athenian lovers. Another follows a group of six amateur actors rehearsing the play which they are to perform before the wedding. Both groups find themselves in a forest inhabited by fairies who manipulate the humans and are engaged in their own domestic intrigue. A Midsummer Night's Dream is one of Shakespeare's most popular and widely performed plays.

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The Greek Poet Anacreon and Bathyll

Artist: Nicolai Abildgaard (Danish, 1743–1809)

Date: 1808

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark

Description

"The Greek Poet Anacreon and Bathyll" (1808) by Nicolai Abildgaard is a painting depicting the ancient Greek poet Anacreon playfully interacting with a young boy named Bathyll, a common subject in art that often represents themes of love, beauty, and youthful exuberance; this particular piece is a prime example of the Neoclassical style, showcasing the artist's interest in classical mythology and idealized forms, with a focus on graceful lines and elegant composition.

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Rebecca and the Wounded Ivanhoe

Artist: Eugène Delacroix (French, 1798-1863)

Date: 1823

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, NY, United States

Description

This was Delacroix’s first treatment of a subject drawn from Sir Walter Scott’s popular novels of medieval chivalry. The eponymous hero of Ivanhoe (1819), straining to leave his sickbed, listens to the terrified Rebecca as she describes a battle raging outside the window. Rather than show the battle itself, Delacroix sought to stimulate the viewer’s imagination by evoking violence through the gestures of the characters reacting to it. The fastidious execution of Rebecca’s extended hand stands in contrast to the jumble of strokes immediately surrounding it and to its left, which suggest the frenzy she witnesses.

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Madeleine Undressing – Eve of St Agnes

Artist: John Everett Millais (English, 1829–1896)

Date: 1863

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Royal Collection, London, United Kingdom

Description

The Eve of St. Agnes is a Romantic narrative poem of 42 Spenserian stanzas set in the Middle Ages. It was written by John Keats in 1819 and published in 1820. The poem was considered by many of Keats's contemporaries and the succeeding Victorians to be one of his finest and was influential in 19th-century literature.

The title comes from the day (or evening) before the feast of Saint Agnes (or St. Agnes' Eve). St. Agnes, the patron saint of virgins, died a martyr in 4th-century Rome. The eve falls on 20 January; the feast day on the 21st. The divinations referred to by Keats in this poem are referred to by John Aubrey in his Miscellanies (1696) as being associated with St. Agnes' night.

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The Duel between Sir Toby and Sebastian (from William Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night', Act IV, Scene 1

Artist: George Clint, ARA (English 1770-1854)

Date: 1832-1833

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Royal Trust Collections, United Kingdom

Description

Oil painting on canvas, The Duel between Sir Toby and Sebastian (from William Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night', Act IV, Scene 1) by George Clint ARA (London 1770 – Kensington 1854). The scene shows Sir Toby and Sebastian dueling, and in the centre Olivia is trying to part them. Behind Sir Toby on the far left is Sir Andrew Aguecheek, behind Sebastian is Fabian. There is a terrace in the foreground, with buildings on the right background.

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Lucretia

Artist: Rembrandt van Rijn (Dutch, 1606 - 1669)

Date: 1664

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, United States

Description

Lucretia's rape and suicide is also the subject of William Shakespeare's 1594 long poem The Rape of Lucrece, which draws extensively on Ovid's treatment of the story; he also mentions her in Titus Andronicus, in As You Like It, and in Twelfth Night, wherein Malvolio authenticates his fateful letter by spotting Olivia's Lucrece seal. Shakespeare also alludes to her in Macbeth, and in Cymbeline he further refers to the story, though without mentioning Lucretia by name.

Shakespeare's poem, based on the rape of Lucretia, draws on the beginning of the Livy's account of the incident. The poem begins with a bet between husbands about the virtuousness of their wives. Shakespeare draws on the idea of Lucretia as a moral agent, as Livy did, when he explores his characters' response to death and her unwillingness to yield to her rapist. A direct excerpt from Livy is used when Shakespeare prefaces his poem with a brief prose called "Argument". This is the internal deliberation Lucrece suffered from, following the rape.

This painting follows the likes of other iconic depictions: Lucretia clutching the dagger moments before she takes her own life.