They shook me Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde at Tate Britain II Jimmy Page and Paul Reeves 29 August 2012 Tate Etc. issue 26: Autumn 2012 Edward Coley Burne-Jones. The Attainment: The Vision of the Holy Grail to Sir Galahad, Sir Bors and Sir Percival Edward Coley Burne-Jones The Attainment: The Vision of the Holy Grail to Sir Galahad, Sir Bors and Sir Percival 1890–4 Cotton, wool and silk 239 x 749 cm © AKG images, private collection The guitarist and founder of Led Zeppelin is a fan and collector of the art of the Pre-Raphaelites. He talks to Tate Etc. about his lifelong passion I have had a passion for the Pre-Raphaelites since my early teens. I would have initially seen them as reproductions, but I remember a visit to Tate and encountering the actual paintings. They had a profound effect on me. It was quite an experience – the realism of their technique along with the idealism, and of course the romanticism. This was before I attended art college. Most people would assume that it was there that I was first exposed to their work, but actually the teaching and syllabus of that time was much more to do with modern art and using modern materials – acrylics in particular – so oil painting, particularly of earlier styles, was not championed. My study of Pre- Raphaelitism, if you need to call it that, was therefore entirely self-driven and a personal quest. Edward Coley Burne-Jones The Arming and Departure of the Knights of the Round Table and the Quest for the Holy Grail Pre-Raphaelite tapestry Edward Coley Burne-Jones The Arming and Departure of the Knights of the Round Table and the Quest for the Holy Grail 1890–4 Cotton, wool and silk 240 x 347 cm © The Bridgeman Art Library, private collection As you know, this art was selling for mere hundreds of pounds at the time, but I was a student and didn’t have that kind of money to buy it. However, as soon as I was in a position to do so, I indulged myself. As to which of the artists I most admired, of course I adored Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, but is there any point or justification in singling out any of them? The art and life and death of Lizzie Siddal always moved me. I think it would be fair to say that I was pretty intoxicated with the whole movement. Later, I had the chance to buy the two tapestries which are on loan to the Tate exhibition. There were three in an auction at Sotheby’s, Belgravia; I think the date was 1978. I fixed on the two I acquired, although all three were beautiful. What enthralled me was the majesty of their drawing and of the execution of the tapestries by those unbelievably skilled craftsmen. The attention to detail of the subject matter and even the background of verdure and flora is still quite astonishing to me. At the time I found it overwhelming. I only hope visitors to the exhibition will feel the same intensity of passion as I did when I first saw them. They were the absolute zenith of Burne-Jones’s and William Morris’s output. I believe Morris himself said the series of tapestries was his masterwork. Jimmy Page talked to Paul Reeves.
The Holy Grail tapestries are William Morris' ultimate achievement as a designer and manufacturer, and `The Attainment' is one of the most iconic images of nineteenth century British art. Morris and British Arts and Crafts have been internationally recognised as exerting a vitally important influence on the arts of Europe, North America and Japan, and this tapestry is now widely regarded as one of the high points of the movement. This lot, the culminating panel from a series of six narrative tapestries depicting the Arthurian legend of the search for the Holy Grail, was felt by Morris to be `our largest and most important work'. The story was selected by Morris and Edward Coley Burne-Jones as the subject for tapestries to hang in the dining room of Stanmore Hall, Middlesex, a commission from William Knox D'Arcy, a wealthy Australian mining engineer. An undated manuscript written by Morris, probably from the time of the commission in the spring of 1891, notes `I have had a careful discussion with Mr Burne-Jones on the tapestries for the dining-room at Stanmore and after considering the spaces to be filled, the light in the room and other circumstances, we have come to the following conclusion. The subject chosen for the illustration is the Quest of the Sancgreal which forms the latter part of the world-wide romance of the Morte d'Arthur... The long space above the sideboard would be filled with the grand design of the Series, the attainment of Sir Galahad of the Sancgreal; he will be landing from his ship at the final resting place of the Sancgreal `Sarras the Spiritual City'. Then will come the Sancgreal borne amidst a company of angels, and lastly, occupying the space over the door, the City of Sarras designed with all the necessary splendour. Here again there will be many figures, the space itself lending itself to a great display of the richness of tapestry design...'. This panel was therefore designed and woven especially to fit around the architrave of the Stanmore Hall dining room doorway. All the tapestries were intended to be seen above eye level, and the other panels surmounted five-foot high verdures inscribed with details of the scenes. No explanatory verdure was deemed necessary to heighten the drama of the final `Attainment' scene, however, and the effect of the cutaway over the door provides an emotionally charged visual device, elevating the Grail and altar above the rest of the tapestry, as can be clearly seen in a series of photographs of the group in situ in `The Arras Tapestries of the San Graal at Stanmore Hall', The Studio, vol. 15 (October 1898), pp. 98-104. Morris always believed tapestry weaving to be the greatest of all the decorative arts, `so deep, rich and varied, as to be unattainable by anything else other than the hand of a good painter in a finished picture' (`Some Hints on Pattern Designing', a lecture to the Working Men's College, London, 10 December 1881). He first saw and admired tapestries as a young man, vowing to master the technique and produce his own panels as soon as he was able to provide the ideal conditions for manufacture. To this end Morris set up a tapestry loom at Queens Square, in the workshops behind Morris & Co., and then in 1881 moved production to Merton Abbey. In the early years he took on an apprentice, John Henry Dearle, who in time became the master weaver and foreman and, eventually, the firm's chief designer and artistic director. Dearle was also responsible for training all new weavers. Of the twenty-nine tapestry weavers who worked for Morris & Co. during the firm's existence, six are known to have worked on the Holy Grail series of tapestries for Stanmore Hall. These were William Harold Knight, William Sleath, John Martin, Robert Ellis, John Keech and Walter Taylor. As `The Attainment' was the first panel of the series woven, Knight and Sleath, the first two apprentices indentured by the firm, are likely to have been involved alongside Taylor, who joined the company in 1890 at the age of fourteen, having been recruited, like other workers, from the East London Technical School. Dearle in particular is likely to have been involved in weaving the finer details of the tapestry, such as the facial features and the hands and feet, with the younger men producing areas of solid colour, pattern and floral details. The panel took them two years to complete; it was finished in time to be shown at the Third Arts and Crafts Exhibition before finally being hung at Stanmore Hall. Occupying three weavers at a loom at any one time, the technique employed by Morris was high warp (or haute lisse) tapestry, as was used in the preparation of the finest mediæval Flemish panels. Initially Burne-Jones made a small monochrome design showing the intended composition with figures. This was then photographed and an enlarged print, the size of the intended finished tapestry, was worked on by Morris and Dearle, who made separate scaled designs of the decoration of the knights' clothing, the floral foreground and the background of the scene. The photographic enlargement and the separate decorative designs were then handed to the weavers as the cartoons for the finished work and remained behind the looms as a guide during weaving. The photographic cartoon for this tapestry is in the collection of the William Morris Gallery, Walthamstow. Morris was justifiably proud not only of his revival of the British tapestry industry but also of the quality of the weaving and the beauty of his designs. Additionally, he was quick to acknowledge the importance of Burne-Jones' input, particularly in the Holy Grail series. These compositions, now considered to be the artist's most successful figural grouping, were well known and widely admired from the time of completion. Of the four weavings of 'The Attainment', the Stanmore version was the first, finest and closest to Burne-Jones' original cartoons. The softness and subtly of the facial features show a high level of weaving skill, with none of the original drawing lost. As the first of all the Holy Grail tapestries to have been made at Merton Abbey, this panel must have been closely guided and supervised by Morris and Dearle: not only was it a highly lucrative and important commission, it also represented the ultimate challenge for Burne-Jones, Morris and their team of craftsmen. So crucial was this project at the time that a typescript record was produced for D'Arcy by A.B. Bence-Jones, which included interviews with Morris and Burne-Jones concerning the development of the group and their literary and artistic sources. This is now in the National Art Library. The six narrative scenes comprising the Stanmore series are titled as follows: Panel 1: `The Knights of the Round Table Summoned to the Quest by the Strange Damsel' Panel 2: `The Arming and Departure of the Knights of the Round Table on the Quest for the Holy Grail' Panel 3: `The Failure of Sir Gawain' Panel 4: `The Failure of Sir Lancelot to Enter the Chapel of the Holy Grail' Panel 5: `The Ship' Panel 6: `The Attainment: The Vision of the Holy Grail to Sir Galahad, Sir Bors and Sir Perceval' The tapestries ordered for Stanmore Hall presented Morris with his dream commission, and he kept a close eye on their progress. Three later versions of 'The Attainment' were woven, but Morris was pre-occupied with ill health during the execution of the first (1895-96, now in the collection of the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery), and the two others were woven posthumously. Of these the earlier, woven 1898-99, is now in a private collection, having been divided and cut into four sections, while the last was not made until very much later, in 1929-32. Further details of these other weavings are available upon request. Following D'Arcy's death, his trustees sold the Stanmore group as `A Superb Set of Twelve Tapestries', Sotheby's London, 16 July 1920, lot 130, purchased by the 2nd Duke of Westminster for Eaton Hall, Cheshire. Three panels, the second, third and sixth, were subsequently offered for sale, Sotheby's Belgravia, Decorative Arts 1870-1940, 19 April 1978, as lots 91-93. Of these, 'The Arming' is still in private hands, 'The Failure of Sir Gawain' was sold Christie's London, Important British and Irish Art, 9 June 2004, lot 40, and `The Attainment' is now being offered for the first time since 1978.
"Picture No. 5 is, as the memorandum states, the grand design of the series. This has no legend under it as the panel covers the space below it. This is the largest picture and occupies the whole end of the room, with a portion extending over the doorway. In this picture alone is there any divergence from the original intentions expressed in the memorandum. Sir Galahad lands with two companions (Sir Bors and Sir Perceval le Gallois); and he kneels at the door of the tabernacle where there are 'the Holy Things' watched by three angels. This tabernacle occupies the space over the door which was intended in the memorandum for the picture of the City of Sarras." Flowers: Red Pieris, Campanula (blue), Hound's Tongue, Knapweed, Anemone japonica, Dianthus, Hawkweed, Cornflower, Oxeye, Lilium Candidum and Anthericum Lilyworts. The 1920 catalogue notes: 'It is interesting to notice that all the plants, vegetation and scenery are quite distinct from thos shown in the previous panels when the knights were still in England.'
Sketch of a man wearing clerical clothing in Sketchbook 54, Byzantine and Romanesque Decoration - One-hundred And Ten (110) Sketches Of Medieval And Byzantine Decoration, Costume, Armour, Etc., Made In Connection With Studies For The Holy Grail Tapestries For Morris & Co. held in Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery, a source for the robes of the Angel on the left of the central trio.