So much for Ruskin's influence on the formal and concep- tual aspects of Burne-Jones s later work; there remains the question of its content. A very large proportion of Burne- Jones s paintings from now on were "ideal grotesques" in the Ruskinian sense, whether they were simply allegorical fig- ures — Faith, Hope, Charity, Temperance; illustrated classical mythology; or took their subjects from Chaucer or Spenser, both of whom Ruskin saw as mines of "sacred truth.'' Two tasks that he undertook for Ruskin shortly after his return from Italy underline the connection. The first was a set of car- toons for needlework that was to be carried out for Ruskin by the girls of Winnington Hall, the school he patronized in Cheshire (fig. 67). The cartoons correspond exactly to Ruskin's ideal, each showing a heroine from Chaucer's "The Legend of Goode Wimmen" as a "beautiful" figure in "perfect repose," and it is not surprising that they also featured in the "Modern Art" lecture, the speaker taking them along to show his audience as an illustration of his meaning. In this case the work was a labor of love on the part of Burne-Jones, But about the same time Ruskin commissioned him to design a series of allegorical and mythological figures to illustrate Munera Pulveris, his controversial papers on political economy that had begun to appear in Frasers Magazine in 1863. Nothing much came of this, but Ruskin's ideas can be traced in The Wine of Circe (fig. 24), a major painting based on one of the designs which did much to establish Burne-Jones's reputation when it was exhibited in 1869. It might be thought that Circe, the sorceress famous for turning Ulysses' companions into swine, was hardly a force for good; but in Ruskin's analysis she is precisely that, "her power [being] that of frank and full vital pleasure, which, if governed and watched, nourishes men." 41 Moreover, comparison of the early sketches with the finished work shows that during its six-year gestation the picture grew increasingly close to the "constant" ideal. Circe herself becomes more poised and graceful, and her setting, having started as a dim and claustrophobic" cell, very medieval in feeling, ends as an elegant, light-filled chamber with classi- cal furnishings.
In Ovid's Metamorphoses, Pyramus and Thisbe are two lovers in the city of Babylon who occupy connected houses, forbidden by their parents to be wed, because of their parents' rivalry. Through a crack in one of the walls, they whisper their love for each other (according to some sources, e.g. Penguin Classics, there is mentioned that the Babylonian Queen made a wall between the two estates and during the construction of the wall, a tiny hole was left). They arrange to meet near Ninus's tomb under a mulberry tree and state their feelings for each other. Thisbe arrives first, but upon seeing a lioness with a mouth bloody from a recent kill, she flees, leaving behind her cloak. When Pyramus arrives, he is horrified at the sight of Thisbe's cloak which the lioness had torn and left traces of blood behind, as well as its tracks. Assuming that a wild beast has killed her, Pyramus kills himself, falling on his sword, a typical Babylonian way to commit suicide, and in turn splashing blood on the white mulberry leaves. Pyramus's blood stains the white mulberry fruits, turning them dark. Thisbe returns, eager to tell Pyramus what had happened to her, but she finds Pyramus's dead body under the shade of the mulberry tree. Thisbe, after a brief period of mourning, stabs herself with the same sword. In the end, the gods listen to Thisbe's lament, and forever change the color of the mulberry fruits into the stained color to honor their forbidden love. Pyramus and Thisbe proved to be faithful lovers to each other until the very end. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramus_and_Thisbe Thisbe holds a sword, alluding to the means of her's and Pyramus's death and a sprig of mulberry, the tree they died beneath.