'The Venusburg Legend' by Maistre Antoine Gaget (1530) was the source for William Morris' 'Hill of Venus' in his 'Earthly Paradise'. It tells of 'a certain young man, who by strange adventure, fell into the power of Venus, and who, repenting of his life with her, was fain to return to the world and amend all, but might not.' The young man's name is Walter, and must gain forgiveness for his sins from the Pope himself. But, because his sin is so great, the Pope proclaims Walter as likely to be absolved as his own staff turning into a flower (which it later does). According to Fortunee de Lisle, the drawings for this subject were executed before Morris' poem had actually been written. Burne-Jones made 20 drawings in all for this story (the finished versions are in the Ashmolean Museum). These designs are final tracing states, or advanced stages in the working out of this composition. They have not been drawn over on the reverse. De Lisle dates the designs for this subject 1867-68.
The City of Venus, surrounded by a river, in the background. From the left he approaches "with faltering feet ...." "He trembled as the wind came up the pass ...." Four frames containing twelve pencil designs for wood blocks, on tracing paper, drawn for an illustrated edition in folio of the “Earthly Paradise,” projected, but never carried out. Inscribed on the mount:- “A certain man by strange adventure fell into the power of Venus, who, repenting of his life with her, was fain to return to the world and amend all, but might not; for his repentance was rejected of men, by whomsoever it was accepted.” – The Earthly Paradise. Reference to William Morris’s poem shows that the poet’s treatment of the story differs totally from that of the painter. The drawings are almost certainly earlier that that poem as it appeared in the concluding volume of “The Earthly Paradise.” The legend first appears in Suabia in late medieval chronicles towards the end of the fourteenth century. The story as popularised by Wagner varies from the medieval legend in essential parts. Both painter and poet went to the original sources, and the result id characteristic of each. Though they worked together, they saw the story quite differently. For instance, the climax of the poem lies in the scenes with the goddess, but the painter does no more than lift the corner of the veil (see the sixth drawing): and the Roman scenes are passed lightly over by the poet, who loved better the medieval Germany, while the painter dwells lovingly on the details of the Eternal City (se drawings 8 to 12). The same reticence of the artist is to be observed in his treatment of the story of Danae, where the pictorial moment that he chooses is Danae half-concealed and watching the building of the brazen tower in which she is doomed to be immured. But Titian portrays her in the shower of Gold. Again, in “the Briar-rose” the painter has refrained from depicting the moment of awakening and the entry of the Prince to the Princess:- Ilʎέov ήμσv Πavτός.