After the reconstitution of the firm as Morris & Company in 1875, there were to be few occasions on which Burne-Jones could give full rein to his invention in an entirely original set of designs for stained glass, at least of sec- ular subjects. One occasion, however, came in 1878, with a commission from Angus Holden, described in 1885 as "perhaps the most popular gentleman who has ever filled the Mayoral chair at Bradford, and the eldest son of one who is socially, politically and commercially at the head of the Liberals of the West Riding [Yorkshire]." 1 In his new house, Woodlands, in what were then the rural outskirts of Bradford, Holden installed a substantial collection of paintings, which included Daniel Maclise's enormous can- vas Bohemian Gypsies (1837), Edwin Landseer s unpleasant but important Spearing of the Otter (1844), and The Bride of Lammermoor (1878) by Millais. For the upper compartment of the main window in the music room, which also housed Philip Calderon's painting after Tennyson's "The Princess," Home They Brought Her Warrior Dead (1877), Morris & Company provided nine upright panels of stained glass representing the Planets. Sadly, these unusual windows have disappeared, but all the cartoons survive, displaying some of Burne-Jones s most delicate and eloquent draftsmanship. Seven of them are at Torre Abbey, and carry marginal annotations that reveal the sequence at Woodlands: Morning Star, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Sun, Earth, Moon, Saturn, Evening Star; entries in Burne- Jones's account book, between August 18 and November 1, 1878, list the designs at £15 each. 2 The two outer subjects are the simplest, the Morning Star and the Evening Star each hovering in the clouds over an ethe- real landscape. Burne-Jones had used the image of a draped female figure walking across a darkling sky for two versions of a watercolor under the title Vesper, painted in 1870 and 1872, but it is clear that the Woodlands pair derive from more straight- forward studio poses, which are indeed to be found (for both figures) in a sketchbook now in the Birmingham collection. By seating all the figures in the Planets series, he allowed himself more space within the limited format of the window embra- sure in which to add zodiacal and other appropriate attributes. Saturn is therefore accompanied not only by Aquarius the water carrier but also by a pair of the artist's typical chubby infants, to offset his further identification as the harbinger of old age clasping a scythe. Jupiter is given the companion fig- ure of Sagittarius, Venus has Taurus the bull, and Mars a scor- pion (Scorpio) as well as a dog of war. Perhaps the most effective of these allegorical combinations is in the depiction of the Sun as Apollo with his lyre, playing to a lion (Leo). The Moon is shown in female form, in a boat, while for Earth Burne-Jones gives a version of one of his favorite figures — a seated Earth Mother (with the inscription "Terra Omnipartis") pouring the water of life from ajar and watch- ing over an infant playing with a dog; as a small oil painting, Earth was exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1882. Some of the designs were repeated in stained glass during Burne-Jones s lifetime (a second complete set, made in 1901 for a house in Bournemouth, is presumed to have perished during the Second World War), 3 and reassembled some of the ideas, with new variations, in a set of four large vertical panels,_now identified as the Seasons, and probably intended as designs for embroidery. 4 In these, the figures of Saturn and Mars (as Autumn and Winter, respectively) are largely unaltered, while Apollo and Venus (Spring and Summer) are completely reworked. 1. Bradford Illustrated Weekly, 1885; Angus Holden (1833-1912) became a Member of Parliament, inherited a baronetcy, and was later made Baron Holden (information from Bradford Libraries, courtesy of Donald Green). 2. Sewter 1974-75, vol. 2, p. 208. The cartoon for Evening Star is at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, and Mars, overpainted in watercolor, is at the Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery (20’98). Both Morning Star and Evening tor were turned into small oils on panel, in about 1880 {Albert Moore and His Contemporaries [exh. cat., Newcastle upon Tyne: Laing Art Gallery, 1972], nos. 91, 92; sold Sotheby's Belgravia, October 2, 1979, lot 10). 3. Moon, Earth, Morning Star, and Evening Star, for instance, survive at Thornbridge Hall, Great Longstone, Derbyshire; see Sewter 1974-75, vol. 2, pp. 25, 185. 4. Bell 1892, pp. 102-3, illus.
Fitzwilliam Account Book 1878 Aug. 22 Saturn. (With Mars £30)