Golden Thread 1905

Edward Burne-Jones made this painting, Golden Thread, with watercolor and gouache and some scratching out, it looks like. I can imagine Burne-Jones making this in his studio, turning the paper this way and that, thinking of the way that fairy tales have a dark side. Look at that armored figure with a sword, up to no good in the woods, and the golden thread, suggesting fate and consequence. I bet he was thinking about the old masters, like Botticelli, and how they would turn a story into a painting. There's something a little claustrophobic about the space in this one, isn’t there? All those little trees, crowding around the figure. It’s like he’s trapped in his own story. And the gold thread that frames him in, holding him there. I can imagine being in the studio with him, where painting is a conversation, one artwork influencing another, across the ages.