Known also as the Song of Songs or the Canticles, the Song of Solomon was a natural choice of biblical subject for Burne-Jones, having little overt religious content but much in the way of lyrical word-painting and allegorical allusion. Described by Burne-Jones in his work record as "designs from the Song of Solomon — for painting on panel some day," a sequence of five large pencil drawings has usually been associ- ated with other designs of a vertical format, destined to be exe- cuted in needlework (see cat. no. 130), although only one such embroidery is known. 1 They are of an exceptional precision and delicacy, extending beyond even the Aeneid drawings (cat. no. 66) in the artist's meticulous delight in elaborating the loops and swirls of the drapery's clinging to even more elon- gated figures. Malcolm Bell, the artist's first biographer, identified the likely source of these hieratic figures in the fifteenth-century engravings by Baccio Baldim and Antonio Pollaiuolo after Botticelli, and especially the edition of Dante published by Niccolo di Lorenzo della Magna in 1481. 2 The two sheets now at Birmingham are the third and the last in the set. The first four subjects are devoted to Solomon's expression of love, both spiritual and sensual, for his beloved, the Bride of Lebanon, whom he finally reveals to the world. Her statuesque depiction with the symbolic representation of the winds was later converted into a huge watercolour, exhibit- ed at the New Gallery in 1891 under the title Sponsa di Libano. 3 1. Harrison and Waters 1973, p. 118. The other three drawings, which were exhibited at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1899 (no. 141), belonged to Frances Horner (née Graham), who worked a number of pieces of embroidery after Burne-Jones's designs. 2. Bell 1892, p. 102. 3. Burne-Jones's idiosyncratic mixture of seriousness and humour is con- veyed by this anecdote, concerning the 18 91 watercolour: "In a letter to Lady Rayleigh there is mention of a scene with a model from whom he drew the heads of the Winds who breathe upon the garden of the Bride, 'I drew the South wind one day and the North wind the next. Such a queer little model I had, a little Houndsditch Jewess, self-possessed, mature and worldly, and only about twelve years old. When I said to her, 'Think of nothing and feel silly and look wild and blow with your lips,' she threw off Houndsditch in a moment, and she might have been born in Lebanon, instead of the Cockney which she was' " {Memorials, vol. 2, p. 215).
Inscribed with verses from the Vulgate, Song of Solomon, 4:16, 7:6: SURGE AQUILO ET VENI AUSTER PERFLA HORTUM MEUM ET FLUANT AROMATA ILLIUS ( Awake O North wind, and come though South, blow upon my garden that the spices there of may flow out); QUAM ;PULCHRA ES ET QUAM DECORA CHARISSIMA IN DELICIIS (How fair and pleasant art though O Love, for delights). There is no suggestion that these were designed to be made a embroideries, rather they were to be made as large paintings as the entry in the work list suggests and only Sponsa di Libano was ever executed.
Inscribed with text from the Vulgate (also known as 'The Song of Songs', 'Canticles' or 'Song of Lebanon ['Sponsa di Libano'], Chapter IV, verse 16. Burne-Jones' absorbing interest in the linear patterns created by heavy swathes of drapery is even more apparent in his smaller-scale decorative work of the mid-1870's. A similar power of linear invention was diverted into a project of 1876, described by the artist as 'five designs from the Song of Solomon - for paintings on panel some day'.This set of large pencil drawings has also been associated with his support of the Royal School of Needlework, which opened in 1872. Through its foundress, his friend Madeline Wyndham, Burne-Jones provided two designs, 'Poesis' and 'Musica', to be worked in outline with brown crewel on linen. These proving both successful and popular, the 'Song of Solomon' series was then taken up, although only one full-size embroidery is known. There are also other versions of this composition: one. formerly in the collection of Frances Graham Horner, that is illustrated in the 1 July 1975 sale at Sotheby's , Belgravia (29); the other, a large-scale watercolour and bodycolour painting, dated 1891, now in the collection of the Lady Lever Art Gallery. For a study of one of the zephrys in the picture, see the autotype in Birmingham's collection, after the drawing also in the Lady Lever Art Gallery. This project of 1876 was described by Burne-Jones as, 'five designs from the Song of Solomon - for paintings on panel some day'. This particular scene was executed in both embroidery by the Royal School of Needlework, and in watercolour by the artist in 1891 (now in the Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool). This drawing is the design for the third composition, depicting Solomon's bride of Lebanon. Malcolm Bell, Burne-Jones's first chronicler, identifies the likely sources of these highly formalized, hieratic compositions, in engravings by Baldini and Pollaiuolo after Botticelli, especially the edition of Dante published by Niccolo di Lorenzo della Magra in 1481. The animation of 'Sponsa di Libano' is a welcome relief to the otherwise rather solemn groups of figures: even with the sharp bright draughtsmanship of a sheet like this, one can understand why in 1878 the 'Art Journal' expressed the hope that Burne-Jones would one day discover "that all mankind, especially womankind, do not walk around the world like hired mutes at a funeral."