Burne-Jones represents in the present watercolour St Dorothea, or Dorothy, who was a virgin martyr who died in c. 304 at Caesarea in Cappadocia under the persecution of Dioceletian. Nothing is known of her life, and the circumstances of her sainthood are legendary. Nonetheless, she has always been remembered and loved, and her Christian Acts have been highly influential. The subject of the present watercolour was described in the catalogue of the Burne-Jones memorial exhibition: 'As Dorothea was passing from her judges to the place of execution, Theophilus, the Protonotary, asked her why she would throw away the joys of this life for one of which no man was certain.' She replied 'that she should that day be with her bridegroom in the garden of Paradise.' Theophilus mocked her by asking that she should 'send him some of the fruits and roses of that same garden.' Then, 'after her death, as he was returning to the Courts of Law, there met him on the threshold an angel bearing a basket of fruit and flowers, who, saying, "My sister Dorothea sends these to thee from the place where she now is,"' then disappeared. The legend concludes: 'Theophilus, pondering all this, came at last to the true belief, and in it died.' In due course, Theophilus was himself martyred and sanctified. The elements of the composition were described in the following terms: 'Scene on the Court of Execution; in the background is seen the Consul leaving the court and followed by the spectators, and the executioner standing near the block; on the right the body of the Saint is being borne away by attendants; and on the left, Theophilus, whilst leaving the court and looking back at the dead body, is met at the doorway by the angel with a basket of flowers.' The subject of St Dorothea's martyrdom was often treated in Italian and German art through the centuries, but less frequently in England. She had been the inspiration of a tragedy by Philip Massinger and Thomas Dekker, entitled The Virgin Martyr (1622), which Burne-Jones may perhaps have known. However, the most likely explanation for Burne-Jones's adoption of the theme is the exchange of ideas with Algernon Charles Swinburne, with whom in the early 1860s Burne-Jones was on terms of close friendship. Swinburne's poem 'St Dorothy' was included in the volume Poems and Ballads (first series), which was published (with a dedication to Burne-Jones) in 1866. Swinburne's poem describes the moment depicted in Burne-Jones's watercolour: And when they came upon the paven place That was called sometime the place amorous There came a child before Theophilus Bearing a basket, and said suddenly: Fair sir, this is my mistress Dorothy That sends you gifts; and with this he was gone. [...] Then cried they all that saw these things, and said It was God's doing, and was marvellous. And in brief while this knight Theophilus Is waxen full of faith, and witnesseth Before the king of God and love and death, For which the king bade him presently A gallows of a goodly piece of tree This Gabalus hath made to hang him on. Forth of this world lo Theophile is gone With a wried neck, God give us better fare Than this that hath a twisted throat to wear; But truly for his love God hath him brought There where his heavy body grieves him nought Nor all the people plucking at his feet; But in his face his lady's face is sweet, And through his lips her kissing lips are gone: God send him peace, and joy of such an one.' CHARLES A. SWINBURNE William Morris also treated the subject of the martyrdom of St Dorothy, in a verse narrative written for, but not eventually included in, The Earthly Paradise, published in 1868-70. ... The first was exhibited in 1867, at the Old Water-Colour Society, and later appeared at both the retrospective and the memorial exhibitions of Burne-Jones's works at the New Gallery, in 1892-93 and 1898-99. Tragically, the drawing was destroyed when the house of Alice Street – the daughter of the architect George Edmund Street – in Somerset Place in Bath, was hit by German bombing in 1942. An illustration of it is shown in the catalogue of the Burne-Jones exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in 1998 (p. 85, illustrated p. 84). Sotheby's 2008 15th July.
Martyrdom of the Pilgrims (Saint Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins) and Funeral of Saint Ursula Vittore Carpaccio Gallerie Accademia Venezia In 1864 Burne-Jones was in Venice for three weeks making copies at the behest of Ruskin. In the Fitzwlliam Museum there are watercolour copies from Carpaccios in Gallerie Accademia Venezia, for example, the foreground knight from The Arrival in Cologne (Acc. no 1084.9b). A great admirer of the artist, he took the crowding of figures and the idea of a corpse being transported from Carpaccio's painting The Funeral of St Ursula (Gallerie Accademia Venezia).