EDWARD BURNE-JONES

Sir Edward Coley Burne Jones (1833-1898) was a master of drawing, painted glass and ceramic art. Initially fascinated by Botticelli, Mantegna and Michelangelo, he later turned to Gabriel Rossetti and the early Pre-Raphaelites. Little concerned with the details of daily reality, he probed medieval literature for new themes and produced works that idolize Victorian values and the Englishwoman. These ancient legends gave him a freedom of expression denied elsewhere in a victorian society. Famous if not notorious for always dressing in black. Burne-Jones was the epitome of licentiousness, as a recent London exhibition made delightfully plain to all.