The daughter of a Jamaican slave, William Morris’s wife, three Greek cousins known as the Three Graces – all muses and models for Pre-Raphaelites.
painting
Great Pre-Raphaelite women didn’t stand behind their partners, but in front of them, as their muses and models. Masterpieces with two stories to tell.
At Satyrane’s tournament for the golden sash of Florimell, Britomart emerges as the victor, but refuses the prize of the false Florimell. She meets her beloved Artegall at last.
A battle in which the Romans were overwhelmingly defeated, used later as an icon of German nationalism. And the vicious murder of the wife of the emperor Claudius.
Absent from Classical art, she first appears in Apuleius’ ‘The Golden Ass’, which was written in the 2nd century. Wonderful paintings, particularly from women artists, of this novel.
More women reading, from Dante’s beloved Beatrice to Charlotte Corday, who was psyching herself up with Plutarch’s Lives before murdering Marat in his bath.
From a naked woman devouring novels, through a class of young Breton girls, to Berthe Morisot’s and Lovis Corinth’s women reading.
Reading and the book in paintings from 1235 to 1849, a period in which they were mainly associated with religious devotion.
Five more forgotten women artists with Pre-Raphaelite style, including the prolific and brilliant Kate Bunce, whose work should be much better-known.
Continuing the stories from the previous book, Spenser adds a sequel to Chaucer’s “Squire’s Tale’ involving Cambell and Triamond.
