This jewel-like panel, one of Burne-Jones's most meticu- lously finished works, must have been largely complete by 1873, according to T. M. Rooke 's testimony (see cat. no. 50), but was brought to exhibition readiness only in 1881, to be shown at the Grosvenor Gallery the following year. A larger version in oil (Victoria and Albert Museum, London) was begun in 1881 but never completed, the Birmingham panel probably being substituted as an exhibition piece when Burne- Jones realized he would be unable to complete a big picture. 1 It was one of the last paintings bought by the artist's most loyal patron, William Graham, whose daughter Frances (later Lady Horner) remembered Burne-Jones bringing bunches of roses from his London garden to cheer her father during his final illness in the summer of 1885. It then became the one major work acquired by William Kenrick (1831-1919), Burne-Jones's only significant patron in his native city of Birmingham. The scene is the wedding feast of Thetis and Peleus, King of Thessaly, in the company of the gods and goddesses, with their centaur attendants. At the left end of the table are Mars and Vulcan, and on the right Bacchus, with Proserpine and Ceres behind him. Beside Apollo, with his harp, Love prepares the marriage couch while the three Fates spin the web of mor- tal destiny. On the extreme right stands the uninvited figure of Discord, with bat wings and snake-entwined hair, who has just entered, preceded by Mercury. The latter, in winged cap and sandals, kneels as he presents the golden apple and a scroll inscribed "Detur Pulcherrimae" (For the Fairest). This is intend- ed by Discord to cause dissent between Venus, Minerva, and Juno, who stand expectantly behind the table beside Jove. The same compositional structure of a frieze of seated figures anxiously looking toward an interrupting entrant was used by Burne-Jones for The Summons, the first tapestry of the Holy Grail series (cat. no. 145). 1. The larger oil is reproduced in Harrison and Waters 1973, fig. 170.
Signed and dated EBL 1872-81 Fitzwilliam work list 1872 ,, designed and began in oil on panel the feast of Peleus for Troy 1881 finished Feast of Peleus