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The Decameron

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

Date: 1916

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: National Museums Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom

Description

‘The Decameron’ is a collection of 100 tales by the 14th-century Italian author, Giovanni Boccaccio (1313 - 1375). A group of seven young women and three men have fled to the countryside to escape the plague in Florence in 1348. They amused themselves by each reciting one story a day for ten days, and Waterhouse shows the group seated together on the grass telling their tales. The word 'decameron' combines the Greek words for ‘ten’ and ‘day’. Each day one member of the party led the group and was given a crown to signify his or her authority.

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The Sleepwalking Lady Macbeth

Artist: Henry Fuseli (Swiss-Born British, 1741–1825)

Date: 1781-1784

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Louvre Museum, Paris, France

Description

Fuseli’s subject is taken from Shakespeare’s famous tragedy Macbeth. In the scene he has chosen to illustrate, a doctor and a gentlewoman are situated in a darkened corridor discussing Lady Macbeth’s deteriorating health. All of a sudden she emerges with a candle, sleepwalking into the scene. Having secretly conspired with her husband to murder the good King Duncan, Lady Macbeth now experiences a vision in which her hands may “never be clean” of his blood. Agitated, she attempts to scrub off the imaginary blood, while the two onlookers, unsettled by her odd behaviour, realise that they have seen too much and promptly leave.

Illuminated by the light of the candle, we can make out the concerned faces of the doctor and gentlewoman from within the shadows. They appear somewhat startled, as if interrupted mid-sentence, staring awe-struck at Lady Macbeth as she sleepwalks by. Clothed in sombre black and icy blue, the darkened forms of the onlookers provide a stark contrast to the painting’s primary subject, the Lady Macbeth, who arrives in a flurry of reds and golds – perhaps indicative of her impassioned state. The red tones that dominate the painting may also be an allusion to the blood that Lady Macbeth imagines while sleepwalking, reminding us of her plight.

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Diomed and Cressida (from William Shakespeare’s ‘Troilus and Cressida’, Act V, scene II)

Artist: Angelica Kauffman RA (Swiss 1741-1807)

Date: 1789

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: National Trust Collections, United Kingdom

Description

The scene is taken from Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida, Act V, scene II, outside the tent of Calchas, where the meeting of Diomedes and Cressida is witnessed by Troilus, Ulysses and Thersites.

Troilus and Cressida, Act V, Scene II

Diomedes pressures Cressida to keep her promise to have sex with him; they are overheard by an enraged Troilus, an anxious Ulysses, and a bitterly satirical Thersites. When Cressida gives Diomedes the love token that Troilus gave her, Troilus cannot reconcile her betrayal with his earlier experience of her. He vows to avenge himself on Diomedes.

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An Idyll

Artist: Edward Burne-Jones (British, 1833–1898)

Date: 1862

Medium: Oil painting

Collection: Birmingham Museums Trust, Birmingham, United Kingdom

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King Lear and the Fool in the Storm

Artist: 19t (Scottish, 1806-1864)

Date: About 1851

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh, Scotland

Description

During the 1850s Dyce became one of the few established artists to respond creatively to the aesthetic challenges presented by the young Pre-Raphaelites, and also to their hero-worship of Shakespeare. For this enormous illustration of Act III of ‘King Lear’ (an exceptional choice of subject for Dyce) he adopted the brilliant palette and meticulous figure drawing of the Pre-Raphaelites. Like Holman Hunt and Millais, he attempted to integrate figures painted in the studio into a landscape setting which was almost certainly worked up from sketches made outside.

Read More: SCENE II. Another Part of the Heath. Storm Still.

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Edwin from James Beattie's 'The Minstrel'

Artist: Richard Westall, RA (English, 1765-1836)

Date: 1798 (exh at RA) - 1806 (exh at RA)

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: National Trust Collections, United Kingdom

Description

A youth reclined on a rock, turned to the left, gazing to the right dressed in a white shirt and shorts, with bare legs and feet, looking upward with a rock and a torrent in the background on the right. James Beattie (1735-1803), Scottish poet, published anonymously the first book of The Minstrel, in 1771 and the second book in 1774 and was notorious for the line: "And yet poor Edwin was no vulgar boy", under which this picture was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1798 and/or 1802.

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Britomart

Artist: George Frederic Watts (British, 1817-1904)

Date: 1877-1878

Medium: Oil painting

Collection: Birmingham Museums Trust, Birmingham, England

Edmund Spenser's epic poem, 'Faerie Queene'

The Faerie Queene is an English epic poem by Edmund Spenser. Books I–III were first published in 1590, then republished in 1596 together with books IV–VI. The Faerie Queene is notable for its form: at over 36,000 lines and over 4,000 stanzas, it is one of the longest poems in the English language; it is also the work in which Spenser invented the verse form known as the Spenserian stanza. On a literal level, the poem follows several knights as a means to examine different virtues. The poem is also an allegorical work. As such, it can be read on several levels, including as praise (or, later, criticism) of Queen Elizabeth I. In Spenser's "Letter of the Authors", he states that the entire epic poem is "cloudily enwrapped in Allegorical devices", and that the aim of publishing The Faerie Queene was to "fashion a gentleman or noble person in virtuous and gentle discipline".

Britomart

Book III is centred on the virtue of Chastity as embodied in Britomart, a lady knight. Resting after the events of Book II, Guyon and Arthur meet Britomart, who wins a joust with Guyon. They separate as Arthur and Guyon leave to rescue Florimell, while Britomart rescues the Redcrosse Knight. Britomart reveals to the Redcrosse Knight that she is pursuing Sir Artegall because she is destined to marry him. The Redcrosse Knight defends Artegall and they meet Merlin, who explains more carefully Britomart's destiny to found the English monarchy. Britomart leaves and fights Sir Marinell. Arthur looks for Florimell, joined later by Sir Satyrane and Britomart, and they witness and resist sexual temptation. Britomart separates from them and meets Sir Scudamore, looking for his captured lady Amoret. Britomart alone is able to rescue Amoret from the wizard Busirane. Unfortunately, when they emerge from the castle Scudamore is gone. (The 1590 version with Books I–III depicts the lovers' happy reunion, but this was changed in the 1596 version which contained all six books.)

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Satan, Sin and Death (A Scene from Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’)

Artist: William Hogarth (English, 1697–1764)

Date: c. 1735-1740

Medium: Oil paint on canvas

Collection: TATE Britain, United Kingdom

Paradise Lost Epic Poem

Paradise Lost is an epic poem in blank verse by the English poet John Milton (1608–1674). The first version, published in 1667, consists of ten books with over ten thousand lines of verse. A second edition followed in 1674, arranged into twelve books (in the manner of Virgil's Aeneid) with minor revisions throughout. It is considered to be Milton's masterpiece, and it helped solidify his reputation as one of the greatest English poets of all time. The poem concerns the biblical story of the fall of man: the temptation of Adam and Eve by the fallen angel Satan and their expulsion from the Garden of Eden.

The main conflict of the poem involves Satan’s jealous desire to corrupt God’s new and beloved creation by creating human distrust in God’s plan, a distrust that will lead to disobedience. Through the temptations of the antagonist, Satan, Milton emphasizes the corruption to which humans are vulnerable if they are not spiritually aware of the manipulative power of evil around them. Adam and Eve’s inner struggle, an effort to resist temptation, symbolizes the innate human desire to stay loyal or true to a spiritual compass, which, in Milton’s poem, is represented by God’s exhortations and the messages of his angels.

The inciting incident of the poem finds the antagonist, Satan, banished to hell, where he and his fellow devils construct a temple called Pandemonium, a symbol of chaos and irrationality, and then plot both to make a good out of evil and an evil out of good. Milton portrays the devils’ apparently democratic decision as ironic evidence of their failed capacity for reason: Satan refuses to accept God’s rational hierarchy—that the Son is superior to him—and settles on irrational disobedience. In an allegory reminding the poem’s readers of a conventional Christian understanding of the fall, Satan begets Sin who begets Death. He volunteers to corrupt God’s new and beloved human beings, and a bridge is built between Hell and Earth.

The rising action explores ideas about free will and a redemption in which God’s Son will willingly sacrifice himself, God’s plan for human salvation. The Son is the instrument through which God acts, and Milton shows how God and the Son work separately, yet are manifestations of the same entity, working as one. Free will is one of the major themes of the poem, and Milton suggests a paradoxical idea about it: a human being is free to choose, yet is only truly free when choosing the good. Events unfold as Adam is visited by the Archangel Raphael who recounts the story of creation, reveals the primary conflict between God and Satan, and describes the latter’s fall and the War in Heaven. The war stands as an extended spiritual metaphor in which disobedience leads to one’s blindness from the truth. Raphael warns Adam to be wary of Satan’s temptations; Adam’s choice will rest entirely in his own hands.

At the poem’s climax, Satan accomplishes his goal by convincing Adam and Eve to become disobedient. Plagued by envy and despair, Satan flatters Eve, convincing her to eat the forbidden fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. He presents knowledge as a means with which she might equate herself with God, using his perverted reasoning to demonstrate how knowledge can be used for evil. Eve, in turn, convinces Adam to join her in this act of disobedience, and he dooms himself, unable to bear the thought of losing her. Ultimately, he chooses loyalty to Eve over loyalty to God. As the pair’s heightened senses take over, their capacity for reason diminishes. The further Adam and Eve drift from God, the more reduced their powers of reasoning become.

In the falling action, Adam and Eve awaken to their banishment from Paradise. They find themselves in a world of shame and evil, blaming each other for their condition, and Sin and Death subsequently enter the world. The fall, however, paves the way for humanity’s redemption and salvation; thus, Milton claims that his epic surpasses the ancient classics, as it pertains to all of humankind, not to a single hero or nation. The archangel Michael grants Adam visions of a future in which his offspring commit murder, as well as scenes of people living for pleasure and the flesh. Unlike Satan, Adam and Eve repent by praying to God.

Michael, in the poem’s resolution, recounts the idea that a Messiah will eventually arrive to reunite Heaven and Earth, noting that there will be much suffering before that reconciliation. Milton suggests that Adam and Eve’s fall is the “felix culpa,” or happy fault or fortunate fall, for God’s mercy is shown. Individuals, he suggests, may hope to redeem themselves through devotion and obedience to God, forming an aspect of his ultimate plan. Comforted by these suggestions, Adam and Eve, in the poem’s final scene, exit into a new world. They have been led to understand that obedience to God and his love for his creation will lead humanity toward salvation, toward regaining a Paradise that has been lost.

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"Who Is Sylvia? What Is She, That All the Swains Commend Her?

Artist: Edwin Austin Abbey (American, 1852-1911)

Date: 1896-1899; reworked 1900

Medium: Oil on canvas

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

Description

Fascination with the life and times of William Shakespeare abounded in the Victorian world, especially in London, where American artist Edwin Austin Abbey settled permanently in 1883. The Bard's writings provided lifelong inspiration for Abbey: as a teenage writer, he used a pen name from Hamlet; from the age of 20 he illustrated hundreds of Shakespearean subjects for magazines; and in the 1890s he painted seven large Shakespearean scenes, including this canvas, which he exhibited at London's Royal Academy.

The theme of this painting is drawn from Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona. The title "Who is Sylvia? What Is She, That All the Swains Commend Her?" is the opening question in a song composed by Proteus, one of the many suitors (or swains) of Sylvia, the Duke of Milan's stunning daughter. All heads turn toward the regal beauty as she lifts the skirts of her Italian Renaissance-style gown while descending a brilliantly carpeted staircase. Each admirer gazes at her and reaches to play an instrument or to offer her a love token. The figure at far left presents a luxurious feather fan; the next man a small dog; and the figure leaning against the column bows in devotion, holding his hat in one hand and a book of poetry in the other.

Read More: The Two Gentlemen of Verona

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Cordelia Parting from her Sisters

Artist: Ford Madox Brown (British, 1821–1893)

Date: 1854

Medium: Pen and oil on paper on panel

Collection: Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio, United States

Cordelia Parting from her Sisters

King Lear begins as the Earl of Gloucester introduces his illegitimate son, Edmund, to the Earl of Kent. Lear, King of Britain, enters with his court. Now that he is an old man, Lear has decided to divide his kingdom between his three daughters. The division will depend on the quality of each princess' declarations of love for her father before the court. Goneril, Duchess of Albany, and Regan, Duchess of Cornwall, both speak enthusiastically and earn their father's praise. But Cordelia, the youngest, says nothing because she cannot voice her deep love for Lear. Misunderstanding his daughter, Lear disowns and banishes her from the kingdom. He also banishes the Earl of Kent, who had taken Cordelia's side against the King.

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Goneril and Regan, King Lear, Act I, Scene I

Artist: Edwin Austin Abbey (American, 1852–1911)

Date: 1902

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT, United States

KIng Lear, Act I, Scene I

King Lear, intending to divide his power and kingdom among his three daughters, demands public professions of their love. His youngest daughter, Cordelia, refuses. Lear strips her of her dowry, divides the kingdom between his two other daughters, and then banishes the earl of Kent, who has protested against Lear’s rash actions. The king of France, one of Cordelia’s suitors, chooses to marry her despite her father’s casting her away. Lear tells his daughters Goneril and Regan that they and their husbands should divide his powers and revenues; he himself will keep a hundred knights and will live with Goneril and Regan by turns.

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Mariana

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

Date: 1851

Medium: Oil paint on mahogany

Collection: TATE Britain, United Kingdom

Description

Mariana is a character from Shakespeare’s play Measure for Measure. Her fiancé Angelo leaves after her family’s money is lost in a shipwreck. Still in love with him, she hopes they will be reunited. Here Millais shows Mariana pausing to stretch her back after working at some embroidery. Autumn leaves scattered on the ground suggest the passage of time. The painting was originally exhibited with lines from Alfred Tennyson’s poem ‘Mariana’: “She only said, ‘My life is dreary – He cometh not!’ she said; She said, ‘I am aweary, aweary – I would that I were dead!’”

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Prospero, Miranda and Ariel, from "The Tempest"

Artist: Unknown artist eighteenth century - Formerly attributed to Alexander Runciman, 1736–1785

Date: c. 1780

Medium: Oil on canvas

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

Description

In Shakespeare's "The Tempest," Prospero is a powerful magician and exiled Duke of Milan, Miranda is his innocent and sheltered daughter, and Ariel is a spirit servant to Prospero, who uses his magical powers to control the island where they live; essentially, Prospero is the father figure, Miranda is his daughter, and Ariel acts as a loyal, magical servant to Prospero on the island.

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Oberon and Titania from "A Midsummer Night's Dream," Act IV, Scene I

Artist: Thomas Stothard (British, 1755–1834)

Date: 1806

Medium: Oil on paper mounted on board

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

A Midsummer's Night Dream

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.

Act IV, Scene I

Having achieved his goals, Oberon releases Titania and orders Puck to remove the donkey's head from Bottom. The fairies then disappear, and Theseus and Hippolyta arrive on the scene, during an early morning hunt. They find the lovers still sleeping in the glade. They wake up the lovers and, since Demetrius no longer loves Hermia, Theseus over-rules Egeus's demands and arranges a group wedding. The lovers at first believe they are still in a dream and cannot recall what has happened. The lovers decide that the night's events must have been a dream, as they walk back to Athens.

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Lear and Cordelia

Artist: Ford Madox Brown (English, 1821–1893)

Date: 1849–1854

Medium: Oil paint on canvas

Collection: TATE Britain

Description

This is one of three paintings by Ford Madox Brown illustrating Shakespeare’s play King Lear. This scene shows Lear with his youngest daughter, Cordelia, on the right. Lear’s doctor orders the musicians to play more loudly and awaken him. But Cordelia is anxious that her ailing father should sleep and she speaks the lament inscribed on the painting’s frame. In the play Lear divides his kingdom between his other two daughters and their husbands. But, after a painful period of self-discovery, he realises that Cordelia is his only true loving child.

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Alexander Pope

Artist: Jonathan Richardson (English, 1667–1745)

Date: 1738

Medium: Oil on canvas

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

Alexander Pope

Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 – 30 May 1744) was an English poet, translator, and satirist of the Enlightenment era who is considered one of the most prominent English poets of the early 18th century. An exponent of Augustan literature, Pope is best known for his satirical and discursive poetry including The Rape of the Lock, The Dunciad, and An Essay on Criticism, and for his translations of Homer.

Pope is often quoted in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, some of his verses having entered common parlance (e.g. "damning with faint praise" or "to err is human; to forgive, divine").

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Brother Philippe's Geese

Artist: Nicolas Lancret (French, 1690–1743)

Date: ca. 1736

Medium: Oil on copper

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

Description

Jean de La Fontaine’s Fables include the story of the widower Philippe, who adopts a hermit’s robes and retreats to a mountain cave where he and his son live free from temptation. Eventually, however, Philippe takes his son out into the world and they encounter a party of young women. When the youth asks about them, his father says they are “a party of geese.” “Father, I beg you, let us take one [with us].” Lancret indicated the women’s elevated social status by including the likely enslaved African servant who shades them with a parasol.