Painting: The Mirror Of Venus

~ beetleypete

Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, 28 August, 1833 – 17 June, 1898 was an English painter and designer associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood’s style and subject matter. Burne-Jones worked with William Morris as a founding partner in Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co in the design of decorative arts.

Another artist who could add fascinating detail, I have chosen his 1877 painting The Mirror Of Venus, because of the flawless depictions of the reflections in the water.

The painting can be viewed in the following galleries. Leicester Galleries, Leicester, England. This is Burne-Jones’s first version of The Mirror of Venus, painted between 1867-77. The second, now in the Gulbenkian Foundation, Lisbon, was started in 1873.

The photo can be greatly enlarged for detail by clicking on it twice.

35 thoughts on “Painting: The Mirror Of Venus”

  3. My granddaughter has had a large, framed poster of a Burne-Jones stained glass angel in her bedroom since she was an infant. Attempts to remove it in favor of something she happens to be interested in at the moment are met with “No.” She is now 11. Burne-Jones work, more in line with the latter Pre Raphs, is beauty for its own sake. What you see is what you get. It’s good to see Jane Morris over there on the right and a few other familiar faces. Personally I believe this painting is a textbook on put the story first. And if there is no story, leave it to the viewer – there is no fuss with the setting, no postcard to get involved with, simply the subject. Going cross curriculum I quote Elmore Leonard on writing “Don’t go into great detail describing places and things, unless you’re Margaret Atwood and can paint scenes with language. You don’t want descriptions that bring the action, the flow of the story, to a standstill.” And here we have Burne-Jones doing exactly that, in another medium, to great effect. Great post.

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  5. My favorite Salvador Dalí painting is the “Metamorphosis of Narcissus,” which involves clever reflections in a pool. However, I’m not a fan of that painting’s background. I would much prefer a simple, uncluttered landscape like the one you see in “The Mirror of Venus.”

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    1. There is a feel of the ancient classical style, no doubt about that. The standing woman in blue is a representation of the Roman goddess, Venus.

      ‘In Roman mythology, Venus is the goddess of love, beauty, sex, fertility, and victory. She is heavily borrowed from Aphrodite, the Greek equivalent of Venus. In turn, both are also believed to originally be the Mesopotamian Ishtar, the goddess of love and battle.’

      Best wishes, Pete.

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  13. Pingback: Painting: The Mirror Of Venus | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News

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