Edward Burne-Jones, The Beguiling of Merlin

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0:00:06.2 Dr. Steven Zucker: We’re in the Lady Lever Art Gallery just outside of Liverpool in England looking at a very English painting. This is by Edward Burne-Jones. It’s the Beguiling of Merlin.

0:00:16.9 Dr. Beth Harris: Merlin appears in literature having to do with the legends of King Arthur. He was a sorcerer. So the story goes that Merlin falls hopelessly passionately in love with Nimue and teaches her all of his magic, which she then uses to entrap him forever. But the irony here is that although Merlin has the gift of prophecy, that is he can see in the future, he nevertheless teaches her and finds himself entrapped in this hawthorn tree.

0:00:50.0 Dr. Steven Zucker: The surface of this painting is so dense from the pond in the foreground all the way up through the tangled boughs of the hawthorn where the branches twist and turn almost as if they were snakes. The figures are serpentine as well and we can actually make out snakes in Nimue’s hair almost as if she was Medusa.

0:01:10.1 Dr. Beth Harris: That branch arches around Nimue almost entrapping her as well.

0:01:15.7 Dr. Steven Zucker: Everything’s pushed to the foreground and when you begin to spend time looking at the positions of the body, I can’t help but to recall the work of Michelangelo especially his figures on the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

0:01:28.2 Dr. Beth Harris: Or the sculptures of the slaves.

0:01:30.5 Dr. Steven Zucker: By this time, Burne-Jones had visited Italy and even though we’re looking at the mythic history of Britain, the art of the Italian Renaissance is apparent. The little pool in the foreground and the careful botanical study of the iris remind me of the work of Leonardo da Vinci, specifically the Virgin of the Rocks, a copy of which is at the National Gallery in London, which Burne-Jones certainly visited many times.

0:01:55.5 Dr. Beth Harris: The drapery, which clings to Nimue’s body, especially around her hips and her thighs and her knees and calves and swirls around her abdomen, this looks to me as though Burne-Jones has picked this right up from ancient Greek sculpture from the Parthenon. And many of those sculptures are here in London. Look at how Nimue steps forward as though she’s moving away from Merlin. You know she’s going to leave Merlin behind. She holds that book of sorcery, of spells. She turns her head to look back at him. It is Nimue who has the power here.

0:02:33.5 Dr. Steven Zucker: The colors of this painting are so subtle. Nimue is wrapped in a dark purple. Merlin wears a dark blue. They are surrounded by these desaturated browns and whites and greens and silvers. The foliage is close behind them. The space is shallow except in a very few places. Just below Merlin’s right hand, we can look back into a deeper space. We can just see back again between the two figures. But with the exception of these few passages, the flowers and the branches completely fill this space.

0:03:09.2 Dr. Beth Harris: Both of these figures feel entrapped to me. And Merlin looks ghostly. He looks as though his life is ending. Nimue is here a powerful woman. She’s got Merlin’s sorcery to herself and she’s using it against him. But there is also something passive about her. There’s something lovely and almost regretful in the way that she looks back at Merlin.

0:03:35.0 Dr. Steven Zucker: She does seem almost surprised that this spell has worked. That she has gained this mastery over her teacher.

0:03:42.8 Dr. Beth Harris: And this reversal of power between the two figures. The powerful Merlin who has crafted the life of King Arthur now completely powerless. And the way that Burne-Jones painted this shawl around his shoulders also looks as though he’s being entrapped. Sometimes Burne-Jones is referred to as a second generation Pre-Raphaelite. And I think when I look at the Hawthorne bush and those tiny blossoms and the irises in the foreground, I’m reminded of that importance of direct observation at the beginning of the Pre-Raphaelite movement. But here creating this imaginary, mythic, beautiful universe of Merlin and Nimue.

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This work at the Lady Lever Art Gallery

Meghan Edwards, “Arthurian Enchantment and Burne-Jones’s Psychology of Love,” The Victorian Web (2004)

Alison Smith, editor, Edward Burne-Jones (London: Tate Publishing, 2019).

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