This version (one of a pair) was made for Eton College in 1904 see below for details of original design and first versions and this commission This magnificent pair of tapestries, only recently reunited at the Victoria and Albert Museum, derives from stained-glass designs made by Burne-Jones for twin lancet windows in the choir of Salisbury Cathedral. His account book with Morris & Company lists, between March and August 1878, "4 colossal and sublime figures of Angels £20 ea[ch] £80. nl They are certainly the most impressive of Burne- Jones's mature angel figures, displaying, in the words of Malcolm Bell, the artist s first chronicler, "his admirable use of wings and drapery alone to secure a rich decorative effect." 2 Bell describes the second pair of more earthbound ministering angels as "pausing in the path of mercy to rest awhile their weary sandal- shod feet, and bearing the palmer's cloak marked with the cockle-shell of St. Jago [Saint James or Santiago of Compostella], the pilgrims staff" and bottle and bag of meal, but so elaborate is the modelling of the garments, so skilful the arrangement of the wings, that the whole heavenly host could not produce a more complete effect of well-filled space, with- out confusion, in which each line and shadow is full of inter- est and importance." 3 Full-size cartoons for the tapestries are preserved in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, with later coloring added in chalks, in a manner similar to the enhancement of the Last Judgment cartoons (cat. no. 71). 4 These have been further amended, presumably from photographs, for translation into tapestry: an outer set of wings to each angel has been elimi- nated to make room for the kind of stylized millefleur back- grounds beloved of John Henry Dearie, who also designed the orange and pomegranate borders. The tapestries were executed in 1894 by John Martin, William Haines, and William Elliman, senior weavers at Merton Abbey. Several later versions were made, including a pair woven in 1905 as a Boer War memorial for Eton College Chapel; in these, the figures of angels are placed over depic- tions of heraldic shields hung from trees, echoing the verdure panels from the Holy Grail series (cat. no. 151). 5 1. Sewter 1974-75, vol. 2, p. 167. 2. Bell 1892 (1898), p. 65. 3. Ibid. 4. Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge (699.1-2); Victoria and Albert Museum (1996, no. M.124a,b). 5. See Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery 1981, p. 108, and Victoria and Albert Museum 1996, p. 290.
Inscription Lettering along upper edge: 'curavit j.h.dearle. texuerunt w.taylor. r.ellis. j.martin. nobis nostris que omnibus propitietur deus' Lettering along central scroll: 'benedicite.duo.omnes.angeli.ejus.potentes.virtute / facientes.verbum.illius.ad.audiendam.vorcem.sermonum.ejus' Materials & techniques note Woven in wools and silks Physical description Stylised foliage and flowerheads and with a forest beyond The original cartoons are in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. The verdure panels below the angels must be adapted from the Holy Grail tapestries that Morris wove for Stanmore Hall, Uxbridge, in 1891-4 Based on designs for stained glass in the south choir aisle of Salisbury Cathedral, 1877-79. This tapestry was made by (Benjamin) John Martin (born c.1872), Robert Uther Ellis (born c.1876) and Walter Taylor (born c.1876). References • Marillier, H. C., History of the Merton Abbey Tapestry Works, 1927 • McConnell, ed., Treasures of Eton, London, 1976 (p.159, )