Arthur in Avalon 

Edward Burne-Jones created this painting of Arthur in Avalon using oil on canvas, though the work looks like something else altogether. Notice the flat expanses of saturated color, and the sharp, almost carved outlines of the figures. The composition is undeniably pictorial, but it’s also strangely like a tapestry, stained glass, or even painted furniture. Burne-Jones was closely associated with William Morris, and with the Arts and Crafts movement, which valorized handcraftsmanship and design reform. Here, the artist seems to be deliberately adopting a pre-industrial aesthetic. Consider the faces of the women, with their deliberate expressions of grief. They have a simplified beauty, more idealized than naturalistic. Arthur himself lies as if he were a carved effigy on a tomb. Even the medium – oil paint – is handled in a way that deemphasizes its inherent qualities. Burne-Jones sought to create a sense of timelessness, a connection to myth and legend that transcended the modern world of factories and mass production. A radical statement, made with every brushstroke.