Arthurian Imagery in Art
IMAGINARIUM: An Alternate History of Art
Welcome to Imaginarium: an alternate history of art. A podcast where we delve in to the most obscure parts of art history.
Hello dear listeners, I’m your host Nadjah, and in this podcast, we try to shed light on less studied parts of the history of art and visual culture.
In today’s episode, i'm going to talk about the imagery and art that surrounds Arthurian legend. From old illustrations, to the 19th c. medieval romantic revival to the current era with the new and upcoming movie of Green Knight, starring the very handsome and lovely Dev Patel. We will look at the scope of what has been created in terms of visual art when it comes to Arthurian Legend. Of course, I am but one single human being and this is but a podcast episode, so I won’t be able to go as in depth as i wish i was able to do, but I do hope it will be a good overview of the subject.
so let’s dive right in.
First of all, even though I’m pretty sure most of you are familiar with the legendary story of king arthur. i think it would still be most useful to start by just recapping the general outline of the story as we know it. We have the noble king Arthur and his courageous knights, we have the sword in the stone and the guidance of the powerful wizard Merlin. The lady of the lake, the kind queen and the tragic romance between Guinevere and Lancelot. These are only a few elements that are the building blocks of the entire Arthurian mythos.
While the way people adapt Arthurian stories is always very fascinating, and it's indeed a story that endured through time, this isn't what we’re here to talk about, even though i would looove nothing more to go on about the history of Arthurian Legend and its written as well as oral history, but this is a podcast about visual history, so today we are here to talk about how people understood this legend through the images and art that were created and how these images evolved through the ages.
I will still make as succinct a summary as I can of the very long history of arthurian stories. Starting with Geoffrey of Monmouth in 1138 with his book “History of The Kings of Britain” in which he details specifically the adventures of Arthur as a great warrior king who fought various supernatural and human threats. Even though there are some Welsh and Breton poems and tales, especially oral stories that predate this book from Monmouth, this is one of the earliest and most well known original stories of King Arthur. Monmouth’s book should not be taken as face value though, it is difficult to see where fact and fiction begin and end. Later, during the 12th century, the french writer Chrétien de Troyes added even more fictional and additional elements to the tale of the Great King Arthur that weren’t originally there in the version told by Monmouth, elements such as the whole “holy grail” thing going on as well as his OC : the wholly fictional character of Lancelot. And it’s because of that, that it is immensely difficult to trace back the actual origins of this story, and if it was ever based on a real historical figure, and if so, who was that person…
These stories are now to the level of myth, and there’s always a lot of research and questioning when it comes to the existence of the historical King Arthur, and what i mean by that, is a historical figure that was the basis of the story and legend of king arthur. Historians and researchers alike never really have settled on a definite answer to that question. While it is Generally accepted in the field that the Arthurian Legends are only that : legends and stories, told through time and that endured to the point of getting this mythical proportions that it has now. There’s a lot of people who try to pinpoint a historical figure that would have served as a basis for the legend of king Arthur, and while there are a lot of theories out there, nothing has been proved for certain……...Yet.
god it makes me go insane and feral, just thinking about how there's no way of like knowing FOR SURE abt arthur, the historical one and how things just sort of faded into history and there are things that we will never know and the middle ages in europe truly is a dark age in how... shrouded in mystery and fog it is , i'm sorry i am going to scream this is so much i mean unless somehow something gets discovered, which is always possible, like as of this date, it is not the case but who knows, anyway i love history and esp those mysteries of history …. god i hope we get some answers someday
(One of the things that i would adore, as an archivist, as a researcher and an art historian, would be to be involved in anything in regards to researching the real historical arthur, my expertise is in art history, but i'm a hard worker and i am full of passion and drive for this subject if anyone is interested please do contact me thank you 💕 )
When it comes to Arthurian legend, there are very specific visuals that come immediately to mind when one thinks of king Arthur and of all the different characters that are part of the legend and stories. It’s just what is widely accepted within the popular consciousness and imaginary. These visuals are ingrained deeply in our perceptions. You have your golden haired king, noble and strong. Morgana with her pale skin and her dark dark hair. The various chivalrous knights, the gentle queen Guinevere, the handsome Lancelot. The picturesque setting of Camelot in which the story is located, in the middle of green forests and under blue skies, where you can see the medieval castle with its towers and turrets and walls. There’s a v ery precise image of the myth that we have and that has been given to us through countless art and visual themes through time.
When it comes to arthurian imagery in art, we have to look as early as the middle ages, because the stories have been ~Around~ for a long time if at least within the oral folklore or history, before they got written down, so they were part of the common imaginary of the medieval period in Britain and then subsequently in France, and the rest of Europe.
Some of the oldest frescoes relating to Arthurian legend stories have been found in an italian castle, the Rodengo Castle, during the 1970s. Dating from the 1200s to 1220s, these wall paintings are some of the oldest representations of the story of Yvain, and taken from a work by the german poet Hartmann von Aue. Several more frescoes and paintings of scenes from Arthurian stories dating from the middle age have been found throughout the years. As recently as 2016, were discovered some new… Well, new is a relative word, but paintings of King Arthur and his knight were discovered in poland. And this is something that I find hugely amazing , that when it comes to studying history, and art history as well. There’s always the distinct possibility that tomorrow, something will be discovered that will completely shatter the basis of everything we know on that subject. and this is...truly fantastic.
romantic movement & préraphaélites
The 19th century brought a wave of renewed interest for the Arthurian legends and stories, especially within the medieval ideation of the romantic movement. The Romantic Movement sought to idealize and (ha) romanticize the past, with stories of romance and mystery, and like. there is way more to talk about when it comes to the artistic movement of romanticism (so please do tell me if you would be interested in an in-depth episode on this movement and showcasing maybe some of the less known artists of the movements) but what is important to remember is this, this fascination of the romantic era for the bygone and mysterious times of the middle ages, where magic and Romance existed, was one of the catalyst of the engouement for Arthurian Legend and medieval inspired Aesthetics in the following years. One of my favorite poems of all time is a poem by John Keats La Belle Dame Sans Merci, a poem that really plays on these medieval themes and imagery.
There’s also the fact that during the 19th c., it was the first time that Mallory’s book Le Morte d’Arthur was reprinted in England since 1634, which really captured the interest of the creatives, from writers to visual artists, when it came to the Arthurian legends. This subject took over their imagination and it would be an interest that would go on to become one of the main focuses of the artists of the time. I can think of the 1832 poem by Alfred Tennyson The Lady of Shalott. A poem that will go on to become a very vivid source of inspiration for the artists of that time. The most well known of these paintings being John William Waterhouse’ The Lady of Shalott in 1888: a beautiful oil painting that is full of the wildness and freedom of nature and of the medieval era.
That painting was based on the fourth part of that poem:
And down the river's dim expanse
Like some bold seer in a trance,
Seeing all his own mischance --
With a glassy countenance
Did she look to Camelot.
And at the closing of the day
She loosed the chain, and down she lay;
The broad stream bore her far away,
The Lady of Shalott.
(read by the fantastically talented Carter J. Cain, currently available for professional voice acting projects : carterjcainvo@gmail.com )
This painting is striking, emotional, and tragic. The Lady of Shalott seems alone in the world, with no one to stand beside her. She is beautiful and lonely.
And we can’t talk about arthurian and medieval inspiration during the 19th century without mentioning the Pre-Raphaelite movement. A movement that will be very influential even after the brotherhood of the pre-raphaelites won’t be active anymore. The Brotherhood of pre-raphaelites was a small group of young british artists that started in 1948 and who prided themselves as being counter-cultural and opposed the general conventions that were in place when it came to what was considered Good Art. The same way the Romantics also were an opposing force to the overwhelming dominance of classicism and the rigid conventions that were controlling the world of fine art, the pre-raphaelites were also opposing this same concept. Where the mainstream, if i may say so, art trends were focusing on the art styles taken from the renaissance and the classical period. A style that is very much very rigid. So within these circumstances, we can understand why they would want to rebel against the general artistic taste of the era and of the institutions. They sought to bring back art to a style of how art used to be, before the renaissance, before Raphael, the italian painter, hence the word pre-raphaelite. so they had a fascination for everything medieval, the more simplistic, naturalistic and yet romantic aesthetic of the middle-ages. They were also in reaction to their era’s industrialization and the rapid changes in their societies. The brotherhood did not last for a long time, but their aesthetic and thematic influence will impact artists throughout the rest of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th century. If you want a more in-depth episode or article on the subject of the Pre-raphaelite Brotherhood, please tell me !
“Truth to nature” as the pre-raphaelite brotherhood says, means an art that’s more truthful and without all the gloss of the “modern” art. They would depict their subjects in a more naturalistic manner, which means that they wouldn’t paint something in an Idealized manner that is Perfect and unblemished (even though i do think that every painting, even the most “naturalistic” and “realistic” is an idealized vision and perspective but i digress and this is a conversation for another day) Their subjects would appear free and wild,
A lot of notable artists were part of this brotherhood of artists, people such as Gabriel Dante Rosetti and John Everett Millais, to name only a few. They created a lot within both the visual arts and literary arts, but we’re going to focus on the visual art side of their artistic output for now.
I do think there’s something really interesting to the fact that this is an innate composant of art. that people will always look at the current art that’s being made, the mainstream trends and yearn for the past, and there will always be art movements and lifestyle movements that will bank on nostalgia and will work to bring back the past into the present. So, in this context, it is very logical and yet intriguing that the attention of the brotherhood of the pre-raphaelites will turn to older stories and aesthetics to take inspiration from. From Shakespeare and medieval poems to, you guessed it, Arthurian stories and legends.
Inspired from poems and books on the subject, as we talked earlier about the poem of Alfred Tennyson, but also more generally, the tales of the various characters inhabiting the world of King Arthur, the art of the 19th c. will dig deep into those stories for inspiration. From the titular king to the chivalrous knights of tale to the mysterious and complex women, all of them will figure in these 19th. c. victorian oil paintings. From William Morris’ Queen Guinevere in 1858 to Edward Burne-Jones “the beguiling of Merlin'' in 1874 to the many paintings detailing Arthur’s death in Avalon, such as “King Arthur’s Tomb” by William Morris in 1854, or The Last Sleep Of Arthur in Avalon by Burne Jones a painting that took from 1881 to 1898 to complete. This is wildly not the subject of today’s episode, but I do think it's worth simply mentioning that artists were not expected to produce high quality works of art in a matter of days or even weeks. Art could easily take several years to complete, and idk I do think it would be good to rethink generally the current industry and expectations when it comes to creating art.. Just a thought like this, but what do i know…..All in all though, the subject of Arthurian legend truly was a core point of interest for artists of the victorian era and the painting resulting of that fascination with the story are intriguing and beautiful, and full of the mystique and romance of the medieval period as seen by the 19th. century, it is a story that seemed to be a reminder of a time of freedom and wilderness during the very tight laced and strict Victorian era.
This interest continued on during the golden age of illustration, which ranges from roughly 1870 to the end of the 1910s, even though the years sometimes vary depending on which art historian you are asking or which book you are reading. I will be talking about this subject more in depth in the future, so please keep an eye out for that, but during those years, there was a lot of focus on illustrations especially of fantastical stories, fairy tales and epic stories. So it does not come as a surprise that the Arthurian legend figured in a large part of these illustrations and was a prominent source of inspiration for the artists of the time. The improvement of printing processes during the 19th century really changed the landscape a lot during that era when it came to illustration, printing and the diffusion of these images. I have talked about this subject a bit more in depth during the episode on gothic romance, which is the previous episode, episode 3, of this podcast, so if you want to know more you can check that one out.
Aubrey Beardsley, an illustrator who was one of the earliest figures of the Art Nouveau Illustration movement, was a veryyyy talented artist. He unfortunately lived a really short life and had an equally really short career, dying by the age of only 25 years old, but it was still one that was very impactful and productive. He worked with a very beautiful style that utilizes delicate and yet bold lines in a very dark black ink. From 1893 to 1894, he worked on 300 illustrations commissioned to him by a publisher for a new edition of Le Morte d’Arthur by Sir Thomas Mallory. These illustrations, made with very solid and opaque black lines and the distinctive vegetation and floral motifs that often figure in art nouveau pieces were hugely innovative. It was a new type of illustration and narrative imagery for the era, something that was both fantastical and an ethereal representation of the characters and of the story.
Walter Crane, who was an illustrator as well as an art historian, I have one of his books on the history of illustration through the ages, and it is marvelously interesting and has definitely become a good research resource for me. Crane is one of the most well known illustrators within this so called era of the “golden age of illustration” and illustrated countless of fairy tales and myths, so it seemed only natural that the Arthurian legends would be the next thing Crane would try his hand at. The visuals of his illustrations for these stories were influenced by both the medieval and renaissance periods as well as the late 19th. c. japanese influence when it came to western illustration and art. The late 19th. c. brings a lot of curiosity from the western artists and art lovers for the art of japanese woodblock printing. An art that will influence the impressionists and post-impressionists painters as well as the illustrators of the time. Crane’s depictions of the legend are more traditional and grounded in reality, trying for a more historically accurate type of visuals (even though there's claims to be made that its difficult to be historically accurate when it comes to a story that is probably maybe fictional and not definitely set in stone when it comes to the period it happens in) He uses earthy tones and soft colors in watercolors to create a very dreamy yet realistic imagery.
The early years of the 20th century will continue to bring a lot of continued inspiration from the Arthurian myths but for different reasons. The myth now serves a different purpose during the first two decades of the 20th century, especially during the politically restless years leading to the First World War and during the duration of it. A lot of oil paintings were made during these years, using the themes of Arthurian legend, as a sort of nod to a more chivalric time and old inspiring tales of courage and bravery. Even if the paintings represent many key scenes of the Arthurian myth, it is the image of the Romantic Hero that is very prevalent during the whole of the late victorian era that is what is really important here. As Cristina Pividori says it in her thesis : “The Death and birth of a hero : The search for heroism in British World War I Literature” «there is evidence to show that the legendary heroes described in epic and romance traditions do form the basis upon which the image of the victorian warrior was built». So this fascination with these heroic characters, not only from the Arthurian legend, but also from greek mythology as well as the tale of St-George against the dragon, will be a huge part of this vested interest for Heroic and Chivalric protagonists in the art of the time. These depictions are grand and solemn, like one of my favorite paintings of the type : King Arthur by Charles Ernest Butler in 1903, depicting Arthur as a beautiful solemn king, placing his crown on his shining hair. It was a way to represent chivalry and nobility in War and times of struggles.
arthurian movies
Cinema is also something that often utilizes stories from the past and well known tropes and stories to make movies and series. As we are now seeing with the amount of remakes, reboots and spin-offs, nostalgia and familiarity with a story has always been an easy way to grab an audience. I still think that it’s somehow not the same thing to take a familiar story and to put your own personal interpretation and spin on it, than what some Corporations *cough Disney cough* are presently doing. I will not. … go much deeper than that on this subject, because it's a whole other conversation, but still, it's important to say that familiar stories, stories that are part of the general consciousness and popular culture, are something that is easy to adapt and to put your own spin on. From Austen books, fairytales and several Shakespeare and greek myths stories. There’s a reason those stories tend to be told, again and again. And Arthurian legend is no exception. If you look through the archives of film and movies (or maybe just do a very judicious letterboxd research) you can definitely see that from the beginning of the 20th century and the start of the use of the medium of film, the stories of King Arthur and his knights have been present from the Start.
What’s always interesting with period movies, is that they’re an interpretation of a certain time in history that the era had. So when you look at a 1960s movie set in the middle ages, it won't be the same thing as a 2020 movie set in the same era. The way a certain period adapts historical periods says a lot about that period in itself. From the design choices to the story that is being told. When it comes to CAMELOT (1967) it's a perfect example of the aesthetic of the 1960s. During that period there were a lot of epic historical movies being produced, and I assume this one was simply the continuation of that. WAnting to tell epic historical stories of legends, from CLEOPATRA (1963) to BECKET (1964) to CAMELOT (1967)Not a lot of historical accuracy here, but a lot of drama and Epicness. The poster for the 1967 movie Camelot is a marvelous illustrated poster whose art was done by Bob peak. I totally stumbled on this poster by chance while researching the episode on 60s french new wave posters that you can go back and listen to, in the archives of the podcast.
GREEN KNIGHT (2021) is a movie that I'm waiting with bated breath. It is one of these movies that I have been really anticipating for the whole of 2020, hoping that it might make a Terrible year slightly less terrible. Spoiler alert it did not and will be now releasing on july 30th 2021, if you are listening from the future, i hope the movie is lovely and please know i'm terribly sad about the fact that i haven't yet watched this movie. This is, to me, and also i guess, my impression only from the trailer and teaser pictures, but to me it seems like it’s a new and fresh approach on the themes of Arthurian legend, precisely here on the story of Gawain and the green knight. This story is a poem from the 14th century, presumably written by Pearl Poet and talking of an adventure of the knight Gawaine and of a mysterious green knight. I do not want to spoil this poem (yes i am aware it has been Out There in the world for several centuries, but still. ..) and I highly recommend reading it. I personally have a book with this poem with a translation from our dear J. R. R. Tolkien and it's been a fascinating read.
The casting of Dev Patel is an amazing choice . The fantastical and gothic aesthetic of the cinematography. I simply cannot wait for this movie. This seems like a new approach to this tale that has been around for centuries now. The story of King Arthur has an enduring legacy.
On this, it's time for the episode to end !
Before we go, I put a bunch of relevant resources on today’s subject in the show notes, you have some books as well as some theses and articles that you can read if you maybe want to further your knowledge and read more on the subject. As always, all the relevant images will also be on all of our social platforms @ imaginarium_pod on instagram as well as on twitter. If you want to support this podcast, you can do so on patreon.com-nadjah. I want to take this opportunity to thank my patrons : may leigh, vilja sala, Trung-Le Nguyen Cappecci, Jak as well as Sam Hirst.
I also want to thank Carter J. Cain for kindly reading Alfred Tennyson’s poem for me, you can find him on twitter @CarterCainVO if you are looking for a voice actor.
Thank you so much for sticking with me and today’s recommendation is the youtube channel « my analog journal » which has been something that has been really soothing and fun to listen to while working. On this, my very dear listeners, I wish you all a very lovely day, evening or night. and hopefully i will see you again very soon.