Ink, soot suspended in water, making the transition from drawings into paintings. The secret of shellac. Casein, originally from sour milk, as a binder in some vast murals.
Rackham
Soldiers on the front in the First World War, a young woman slaving as a seamstress, Dickens’ miserly Scrooge, and Polish ‘exiles’ in Siberia – those we should be thinking of this Christmas.
Hatboxes from Shakespeare to the Champs Elysées, the wig-box of hanged highwayman, Dickens’ cashboxes, and the painter’s pochade.
The most prominent in paintings, Pandora’s box was really a jar, and didn’t become a popular theme until the late 19th century.
More literary ghosts from the tales of Ossian, Charles Dickens’ novella ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Arthur Rackham, and a watercolour by Lizzie Siddal.
When the queen is abducted, Lancelot rescues her, only to see her prepared to be burned at the stake. Arthur and Lancelot go to war against one another, and Arthur against Mordred, the usurper.
Lancelot is tricked into getting Elaine pregnant with Galahad. When grown up, Galahad is knighted and welcomed to the Round Table in time for a vision of the Holy Grail and the start of the quest.
The modified myth of Pandora remained popular well into the 20th century, when it must have seemed even more appropriate with war and pandemic.
First published just before Christmas 1843, it’s probably the most successful Christmas story in English. Here illustrated by Arthur Rackham.
Paintings of the Sleeping Beauty and the Frog Prince only became popular late in the nineteenth century. Do they conform to the standard plot type?
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