The lure of water-women

In Rossetti’s 1853 drawing Boatmen and Siren, one of the boatmen is captivated by the siren, but is saved from certain death by his companion.  The accompanying inscription was written by Jacopo da Lentino, a Italian poet of the Rennaissance era whose work was translated by Rossetti in The Early Italian Poets: I am broken, … Read more

Nymphs Finding the Head of Orpheus

Pre-Raphaelite art has its critics. I feel like many of them don’t actually look at the paintings or consider an artist’s individual work. They give it a cursory glance, assume that it’s all sentimentality and languorous women and then promptly dismiss it. A similar reaction takes place when people think of mythic fiction and fantasy, … Read more

More on Waterhouse’s Undine and Mermaids

Apparently I can not resist their lure and mermaids have become my theme of the week. Previously I shared that I had read Undine, which prompted a post of Undine images by artists Waterhouse and Rackham and yesterday’s post featuring mermaid images by Burne-Jones and Waterhouse.  I was browsing through a book about Waterhouse this … Read more

Mermaids

Last week, I posted about reading the classic fairy tale Undine, in which a water spirit marries a human in order to gain a soul.  If you seek the enchantments of water-women, then a dose of Burne-Jones is in order: The Sea-Nymph: One of the most haunting images I’ve ever seen, The Depths of the … Read more