St Paul 1862

Edward Burne-Jones made this study of St Paul using pencil and watercolour. It’s a design for a stained-glass window. Burne-Jones was a leading figure in the second wave of the Pre-Raphaelite movement in Victorian England. They were deeply influenced by religious art of the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance. Note the stylised halo, the stylised hair, the intense gaze, and the clasped hands, all conventions from the art of medieval Christianity. These artists wanted to get away from what they saw as the ugly reality of industrial England, and to go back to a more spiritual and beautiful time. Victorian artists like Burne-Jones were concerned with the social role of art, and he and his contemporaries were interested in decorating churches, as well as creating art for the newly established museums and galleries of the time. To understand this drawing better, you could research the Victorian church building and decoration movement. By studying the past, we can interpret the present.