The story of the quest for the Holy Grail was central to the Pre-Raphaelite movement and particularly associated with Burne-Jones and William Morris. Although Burne-Jones had painted scenes from the Mort d'Arthur in the 1860s when his work was influenced by Rossetti, it was his later decorative and romantic style that lent itself best to the depiction of knights in shining armour, tall and sylphlike damsels and wild landscapes. The series of tapestries depicting the grail narrative are among the most beautiful and significant contributions to 19th century interior design. After Burne-Jones and his great friend William Morris abandoned their theological studies in Oxford, they transferred their enthusiasm to the epic novel by Sir Thomas Malory Le Morte d'Arthur. Burne-Jones' wife Georgina explained the importance of this book to her husband and Morris; 'sometimes I think that the book never can have been loved as it was by those two men. With Edward it became literally a part of himself. It's strength and beauty, it's mystical religion and noble chivalry of action, the world of lost history and romance in the names of the people and places - it was his own birthright upon which he entered' (G. Burne-Jones, Memorials of Edward Burne-Jones, 1904-1906, p.116). The personal significance of the King Arthur legend is made particularly apparent in the present watercolour in which Burne-Jones painted himself as the king seated at the centre of the round table. In 1885 and 1886 Burne-Jones designed a set of four windows to be made by Morris & Company for his home, North End House. It was probably working upon these that inspired the artist and designer to plan a set of tapestries depicting the same epic story. The long horizontal shape of the tapestries allowed the artist to create more panoramic scenes than the narrow formats of the windows allowed. The Knights of the Round Table Summoned to the Quest by a Strange Damsel (The Summons) is a preparatory study for one of the tapestries designed by Burne-Jones and woven at Merton Abbey by Morris & Co. for the dining room at Stanmore Hall in Middlesex c.1890 (Fig 1.). Five narrative tapestries were designed, depicting the story of the quest for the Holy Grail described by Malory in Morte d’Arthur, The Summons being sequentially the first. The knights depicted are Sir Gawaine, Lamorak, Percival and Bors, Ector de Marys and Kay and one chair is shown unoccupied, symbolising the Siege Perilous (from the old French word for chair) prefiguring the coming of a knight who will succeed in the quest to find the grail. A presumably earlier study (Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery) of the same size to the present one depicts nude figures of the knights demonstrating Burne-Jones’ meticulous preparation for his compositions. In an interview given by Morris is 1894 he mentioned the present study as one of those ‘not above 15 inches high. The figures are grouped and drawn from carefully prepared studies: for the most part there is but little minuteness of detail and they are only slightly tinted’ (Aymer Vallance, ‘The Revival of Tapestry-Weaving: An Interview with William Morris', in Studio, 1894). Burne-Jones commissioned the chairs depicted in The Summons which he used in his summer house after they had been used for the studies and the horse was painted from a plaster model which can be seen in a photograph of Burne-Jones’ studio published in Art Annual in 1894. Stanmore Hall was owned by William Knox D’Arcy, an Australian millionaire who had made his fortune in gold mining and founded the precursor of British Petroleum. Morris and Burne-Jones disliked D’Arcy’s bourgeois taste but his agreement to pay £3,500 for the tapestries made his patronage irresistible. The choice of subjects for the tapestries was almost certainly determined by the designers rather than the patron but they suited the gothic grandeur of Stanmore Hall. ‘How King Arthur sat in his hall at high tide of Pentecost and how the whole round table was there assembled when there entered to them a damsel and called upon the knights to take upon them the quest of the sangrael whereof was great stir and wonder amongst them of the Round Table both the king and his knights.’ William Morris Sotheby's 2017
Fitzwilliam Account book 1891 By Stanmore Arras Cartoons ... 7 Oct " cash (£) 100 Burne-Jones was paid £100 for the set of six cartoons which were enlarged by photography in preparation for weaving. There are a number of differences between this drawing and the final tapestry.
The Knights of the Round Table Summoned to the Quest by a Strange Damsel (The Summons) is a preparatory study for one of the tapestries designed by Burne-Jones and woven at Merton Abbey by Morris & Co for the dining room at Stanmore Hall in Middlesex c.1890. Five narrative tapestries were designed, depicting the story of the quest for the Holy Grail described by Malory in Morte d’Arthur, The Summons being sequentially the first. The tapestry bears the inscription (presumably by Morris); ‘How king Arthur sat in his hall at high tide of Pentecost and how the whole round table was there assembled when there entered to them a damsel and called upon the knights to take upon them the quest of the sangrael whereof was great stir and wonder amongst them of the Round Table both the king and his knights.’ The knights depicted are Sir Gawaine, Lamorak, Percival and Bors, Ector de Marys and Kay and one chair is shown unoccupied, symbolising the Siege Perilous (from the old French word for chair) prefiguring the coming of a knight who will succeed in the quest to find the grail. A presumably earlier study (Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery) of the same size to the present one depicts nude figures of the knights demonstrating Burne-Jones’ meticulous preparation for his compositions. In an interview given by Morris is 1894 he mentioned the present study as one of those ‘not above 15 inches high. The figures are grouped and drawn from carefully prepared studies: for the most part there is but little minuteness of detail and they are only slightly tinted.’ (Aymer Vallance, ‘The Revival of Tapestry-Weaving: An Interview with William Morris', in Studio, 1894) Burne-Jones commissioned the chairs depicted in The Summons which he used in his summer house after they had been used for the studies and the horse was painted from a plaster model which can be seen in a photograph of Burne-Jones’ studio published in Art Annual in 1894. Stanmore Hall was owned by William Knox D’Arcy, an Australian millionaire who had made his fortune in gold mining and founded the precursor of British Petroleum. Morris and Burne-Jones disliked D’Arcy’s bourgeois taste but his agreement to pay £3,500 for the tapestries made his patronage irresistible. The choice of subjects for the tapestries was almost certainly determined by the designers rather than the patron but they suited the gothic grandeur of Stanmore Hall. Sotheby's 2014