But the outstanding example is the murals Burne-Jones painted at Red House in 1860 (figs. 59, 60), each based in composition on Giotto's frescoes in the Arena Chapel at Padua. He must have known these paintings for some years from the Arundel Society's woodcuts and Ruskin's descriptive notes, but it is no surprise that he only now made use of them in this way, probably after studying them in 1859 at Ruskin's instigation. They were, of course, religious images, supreme among "noble subjects." As George Landow has observed, they epitomize "the kind of serene emotion" that Ruskin had seen as "the highest form of Vital Beauty in man," 23 and as a natural corollary to this, they exemplify "repose" and "classical grace." Ruskin describes the scene on which Burne-Jones was most dependent, that of the Virgin returning home after her betrothal (fig. 61), as typical of "the simplicity and repose which were peculiar to the compositions of the early four- teenth century," and likens it to "a portion of the Elgin frieze." 24 Finally, as we know, Ruskin regarded Giotto as a crucial link in the "unbroken chain" running from classical Greek sculp- ture to the Pre-Raphaelites. In other words, by encouraging Burne-Jones to look at these paintings, he was attempting to reestablish the tradition derailed by the medievalist heresy. Anything Watts was saying about his sense of belonging to a classical tradition would only have reinforced this message for Burne-Jones.
A design for the mural executed in the summer of 1860 at the Red House, illustrated (fig. 1) in the 1975 A.C. Catalogue. There is a very similar drawing at the R.I.B.A. collection, and a study squared for transfer at Birmingham (Nos. 64 and 63 in catalogue). John Christian writes: 'The composition seems to be inspired by Giotto's fresco of 'The Wedding Procession of the Virgin' in the Arena Chapel, Padua, which Burne-Jones would have known from the woodcuts published by the Arundel Society in 185360, whith notes by Ruskin'.
