BURNES-JONES, Edward. - Painter and decorator, b. at Birmingham in 1833, d. in London in 1898. He abandoned ecclesiastical studies to devote himself to painting following the enthusiasm aroused in him by the works of D. Rossetti (q.v.). Though he professed the theoretical principles of the Pre-Raphaelite movement (q.v.), he belongs to a later period; he began to work when the original Pre-Raphaelite association had already dissolved. At first he was a faithful imitator of the master; later, under Ruskin’s guidance, he made two trips to Italy (1859 and 1862), where he was able to study directly the works of the Italian Quattrocentists and to feel especially the influence of Botticelli and Mantegna, which decisively contributed to the formation of the most original part of his style.
Besides subjects drawn from medieval legends or of a mystical-religious character—always tinged with the literary taste peculiar to his school (The Merciful Knight, Elijah in the Wilderness, etc.)—he also treated mythological subjects derived especially from the Odyssey (e.g., Circe’s Drink, etc.), for which he found greater freedom of expression and a warmer coloring. His best works (The Golden Staircase, King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid, Sponsa de Libano) reveal his qualities as a fine colorist and a free and pleasing composer, though he never succeeded in freeing himself from an external and mannered formal stylization: his figures, with their clear outlines, seem to derive from a single model and all share the same sinuous forms. Because of this tendency toward ornamentation, he found greater coherence in his works of a decorative character: stained glass (e.g., Adam and Eve and the Tower of Babel in the chapel of Bradford College), music (e.g., in the Protestant church of St. Paul in Rome), tapestries (e.g., The Star of Bethlehem in Exeter, etc.); works which he executed for the firm of W. Morris.