Edward Burne-Jones
The Annunciation and the Adoration of the Magi, 1861, Oil paint on 3 canvases, 108.6 x 73.7 cm; 108.6 x 156.2 cm; 108.6 x 73.7 cm, Tate; Presented by G.H. Bodley in memory of George Frederick Bodley 1934, N04743, ©️ Tate, London / Art Resource, NY
English Pilgrims
Commentary by Jonathan K. Nelson
Like other members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Edward Burne-Jones found inspiration in Renaissance paintings. But this Adoration of the Kings, one of his first major works, also reveals how he reinterpreted sacred stories in those works to revitalize ecclesiastical decoration.
Commissioned for St Paul’s in Brighton, UK, the altarpiece has the traditional triptych format commonly found in Medieval and Renaissance altarpieces; here, the side panels depict the Annunciation. Burne-Jones described the work as ‘an old Venetian picture’, and his representation of the central ‘king’ as a bearded and turbaned Black man might reflect Paolo Veronese’s Adoration of the Kings (1582) in Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice.
From Italian examples, Burne-Jones could have found inspiration for the inclusion of portraits. The first king borrows facial features from the artist William Morris, whose wife Jane appears as Mary. Burne-Jones represented himself in the corner and the poet Algernon Charles Swinburne playing bagpipes, in the guise of the two shepherds at the upper right. These members of the painter’s inner circle probably indicate his personal engagement with the subject.
From his theological studies at Oxford, Burne-Jones knew that the three Magi who adored the Christ child were often associated with a passage in Isaiah 60:3 ‘Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn’. In his altarpiece, people from the distant lands of Africa and England pay homage to the Messiah, whose divine light is indicated by the star and glowing background.
In his discussion of a later Adoration by Burne-Jones, published in the aptly named Sermons in Art (1908), the Reverend James Burns interpreted the Magi’s journey as ‘the Soul’s Quest for God’, reminiscent of the Quest for the Holy Grail (Crossman 2007: 420). This offers a possible explanation for Burne-Jones’s unusual decision to represent one Magus as a knight. Perhaps the artist also agreed with Burns that the Magi were ‘pilgrims of the Spiritual Way’.
In this ‘sermon in art’, Burne-Jones depicted himself as a modern English pilgrim, searching for new ways to express his spirituality.
References
Crossman, Colette. 2007. ‘Art as Lived Religion: Edward Burne-Jones as Painter, Priest, Pilgrim, and Monk’ (Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Maryland)
Scott, Rachel, et al. 2021–22. ‘The Making of a Triptych: The Annunciation and Adoration of the Magi 1861 by Edward Burne-Jones’, Tate Papers 34, available at https://www.tate.org.uk/research/tate-papers/34/the-making-of-a-triptych-the-annunciation-and-adoration-of-the-magi-1861-by-edward-burne-jones [accessed 26 July 2022]
Wildman, Stephen and John Christian. 1998. Edward Burne-Jones, Victorian Artist-Dreamer (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art)
