Works of Art From the Metropolitan Museum

¶ … works of art from the Metropolitan Museum of Art

The painting Lachrymae by the British artist Lord Frederic Leighton depicts what looks like a woman in a dark, Grecian tunic standing by a column in mourning. The woman wears a dark cloak over her shoulder and has dark leaves in her hair. Although her full figure is visible to the gazer, she turns away, as if she is in her own, private world of grief. There are dry leaves and a withered laurel crown at her feet, suggesting she is mourning for a dead lover. Other than the golden sun setting in the background, the overall atmosphere is one of profound sadness, despite the idealized, proportionate figure of the woman.

Although it attempts to recreate the images of ancient Greece in its style and symbolism, the painting is identified as being reflective of a late form of the 19th century movement called Pre-Raphaelitism, with some precursors of modernism. The artist looked back in time and used images from the past to convey a particular mood, in this case, intense sadness. Although the painting is not specifically about a myth, it recalls ancient mythology to suggest the timeless nature of death and sadness. However, because of the beauty of the symbolic image and its perfectly blended colors and lines, the painting gives the viewer a sense of comfort. Modernism is reflected in the blurriness of the woman's face, which contrasts with the more realistic style of early Pre-Raphaelitism and is meant to indicate her mood.

The Love Song by Sir Edward Burne-Jones is another work of art from earlier in the 19th century. It is also a symbolic work, in this case a painting that attempts to show an idealized symbolic portrait of love. Rather than using figures from the medieval era, however, Burne-Jones instead sets his painting in the medieval era. In the foreground, a young knight kneels. His back is turned away from the gazer, his intention upon a woman playing a harp. The woman looks much like a painting from the Renaissance: her face lacks a three-dimensional quality. The red and blue hues of the work also recall Renaissance paintings, and an angel is seen beside the harp, indicating the beauty of her composition. The subtle shading of the work is more modern than most Renaissance or medieval styles. However, in contrast to the Leighton, this work is far more of an exact replica of the style of the past it is appropriating. Leighton's work is more dark and personal, and according to the information provided about Lachrymae on the Metropolitan Museum website at the time when Leighton composed the work, he was dying and used the image of the woman to convey his own sorrow. In contrast, the Burne-Jones painting was composed during the early days of the Pre-Raphaelite movement and was designed to merely reflect its ideas, such as the need to combine story, song, and history in painting.