The Medievalism OfWilliam Morris
The Medievalism of William MorrisSuzanne 0 ‘Rourke Scanton[William Morris’sJ vision is true because it is poetical,because we are a little happier when we are looking at it, andhe knew as Shelley knew.the economists should take theirmeasurements not from life as it is, but from the vision of menlike that, from the vision of the world made perfect that isburied under all minds.1.From this foul drain the greatest stream of human industryflows out to fertilize the whole world. From this filthy sewerpure gold flows. Here humanity attains its most completedevelopment and its most brutish; here civilization works itsmiracles and civilized man is turned almost into a savage.2Inthe seventeenth century, the term “Middle Ages” first came intouse to describe the roughly one thousand years between the fall of Rome and theend of the Renaissance in the sixteenth century. Almost as soon as they wereover, the Middle Ages became a point of comparison with “Modem” times.People have used the Middle Ages to define themselves, to explain who they areand who they are not, to measure how much progress they have made over thepast, or how much they have lost in relation to it. The medieval is part of ourconsciousness and imagination. The modem Western world owes much to themedieval for its cultural and religious traditions, political structures, andintellectual framework.3Historian Leslie Workman put it simply, “medievalism[isi theMiddle Ages in the contemplation of contemporary society.”4 Some historianscontend that it was the romantic artists and writers of the late eighteenth andearly nineteenth centuries who first created medievalism. They rehabilitated theMiddle Ages by replacing images of barbarism, decline, and backwardness that.‘Peter J. Faulkner, Against the Age: An Introduction to William Morris (London: George Allen &Unwin, 1980), ix-x, quoting W.B. Yeats on William Morris, “The Happiest of the Poets” (1903) inEssays (London, 1924), 77.2EJ Hobsbawm, The Age of Revolution: Europe 1789-1848 (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson,1962), 27, quoting Alex de Tocqueville, Journeys to England and Ireland, ed. J.P. Mayer (1958),107-108.Veronica Ortenberg, In Search of the Holy Grail: The Quest for the Middle Ages (London:Hambledon Continuum, 2007), ix-xii.“Leslie J. Workman and Kathleen Verduin, eds., Medievalisnz in England II (Cambridge: D.S.Brewer, 1996), 2.
154Suzanne 0 ‘Rourke Scanlonare associated with those times with images of chivalry, idealism, simple beauty,and appreciation of women. But nineteenth century views of the Middle Ageswere mainly based on “ideological projections” because medievalist scholarshipwas not yet very far advanced.5 In any event, nineteenth century medievalismprovided a discourse to compare ideologies and qualities from an imagined pastwith the Victorian world that privileged rationalism, utilitarianism, centralizedgovernment, and industrial capitalism.6By the turn of the nineteenth century, medievalism pervaded culture inBritain. It was in England that medievalism first developed, and Romanticismoriginated from it. England had a medieval character even in the seventeenthcentury. One reason for this is that there had been a great deal of continuity in itsmajor political institutions: common law and Parliament.In England,medievalism had probably always been present as a discourse since theRenaissance, but from the eighteenth century on, it was fashionable and visiblethere.7Of the many forms medievalism has taken in modern times, the 19thcentury English Romantic movement used it as a medium to stir reflection andcomparison between contemporary and past. The Romantics looked back on theMiddle Ages seeing times of richer values, social harmony, and greaterspirituality. William Morris, born in England in 1834, during the later phase ofthis era, was associated with a branch of the movement in art that usedmedievalism more deliberately and fluently, and as an idiom of protest.5William Morris was one of the most influential medievalists of thisphase, as creator of paintings, decorative arts and crafts, graphics, jewelry,books, poems, fiction, songs, and as translator, art theorist, and political writer.Morris used medievalism in his art and social activism to express hisdissatisfaction with the problems he perceived in Victorian society and hisvision for social reform. During the Victorian medieval revival, medievalismcould offer solace and escape from the harsh industrial capitalism of nineteenthcentury England. According to E.P. Thompson, “[tJhe values of industrialcapitalism were vicious and beneath contempt, and made a mockery of the pasthistory of mankind.”9 Through medievalism, Morris launched his own “holycrusade against the age,” and made a unique contribution in the arts andpolitics.’0Not only was capitalism securely entrenched in Morris’s time, it wasvenerated by State and Church. As Charles Dickens described it in Hard Times,the Victorian era was an age of “facts and figures,” in which people should“never wonder” or “stoop to the cultivation of sentiments and affections.”Norman F. Cantor, Inventing the Middle Ages (New York: Harper Perennial, 1991), 28-29John Simons, “Medievalism as Cultural Process in Pre-industrial Popular Literature,” inMedievalis,n in England II, 5-6; Cantor, Inventing the Middle Ages, 29.Leslie J. Workman, “Medievalism and Romanticism,” Poetica 39/40(1994), 1; Simons, 6.Ortenberg, Holy Grail, 44-45.E.P. Thompson, William Morris: Romantic to Revolutionary (Pontypool: The Merlin Press, 1955,1976 Foreword by Peter Linebaugh, 2011), 770.‘ Thompson, 248.Charles Dickens, Hard TOnes, ed. by Paul Schlicke (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 51.6EX POST FACTO
The Medievalism of William Morris155Medievalism was a form of revolt against the prevailing utilitarianism ofVictorian times, that were in Morris’s words, pervaded by “bourgeoisdom andphilistinism.” Morris sought to diffuse philistinism with his art: to “inject intothe very sources of production pleasurable and creative labour, to recreateconditions of artistic production found in medieval times.”2 The literary andvisual artwork that Morris created gave him an outlet for social protest, but itnever fully satisfied his desire to create social change. Thus, in his later life,Morris worried that his work was not making enough of an impact. Morris’sartistic vision could not stop the spread of slums or ugly suburban sprawl, andhe found it distasteful that his work was in very high demand among so manyfashionable and wealthy clients. In his discontent, Morris continued to searchfor new projects, and he ultimately became involved with England’s incipientsocialist movement. He was one of its earliest and original thinkers, writingextensively on the subject in a way that complemented the teachings of Karl3Marx.Morris grew up and lived through times of dual revolution in Europe:the French Revolution and the Industrial Revolution. As the revolutions fannedout from England and France in the form of economic growth and worldconquest, European economies grew, but it was Britain especially that enjoyedunparalleled expansion and world domination. According to E.J. Hobsbawm, itwas an age when “money not only talked, but governed.”4 During theIndustrial Revolution, class consciousness developed among three classes: landowners, bourgeois capitalists, and laborers, and a utilitarian outlook prevailed.In the early years of the nineteenth century, a “pietistic protestantism” grew, onethat had no tolerance for anything not comporting with its “rigid, self-righteous,and unintellectual” values.’5With the growth of factory production,inhospitable manufacturing cities cropped up, characterized by gloomy millsspewing air and water pollution and punctuated with endless rows of small,bleak homes. Socialist movements, including Marxism, developed in thenineteenth century as a reaction to the problems posed by the IndustrialRevolution.’6William Morris’ Early Life and CareerMorris grew up in a suburban village near Epping Forest calledWalthamstow in a well-to-do family. His childhood was a time steeped in theromanticism of Byron, Shelley, and Keats. Morris was raised as a member of anevangelical branch of the English Church, but as he recalled, “never took to”12Thompson, 248.Thompson, 248-249, 770.“E.J. Hobsbawm, The Age of Revolution: Europe 1789-1848 (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson,1962), 3, 28-31; Mark Knight and Emma Mason, Nineteenth-Century Religion and Literature: AnIntroduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006), 12; George lichtheim, Marxism: AnHistorical and Critical Study (New York: Columbia University Press, 1964), xiii.‘5lbid., 185-188.16Ibid., 187-188; George lichtheim, Marxism: An Historical and Critical Study (New York:Columbia University Press, 1964), xiii.‘‘VOLUME XXII 2013
156Suzanne 0 ‘Rourke Scanlonthis religious practice. From an early age Morris was a voracious reader and hada fascination with medieval and prehistoric sites and “endless stories of knightsand chivalry.” Morris’s father died in 1847, and his inheritance made him verywealthy. In 1853, Morris began studies at Oxford and immersed himself inmedieval history and the religious poetics of the Oxford Movement. Heabandoned the latter when he came into contact with the writings of John Ruskinand Thomas Carlyle: Ruskin on art, society, and the idea that art should expressthe moral being of the artist and Carlyle on medieval utopianism andcondemnation of industrial capitalism. Morris was surrounded by romanticism,and it was one of the strongest of his early influences and passions.’7In 1856, Morris crossed paths with a circle of artists and friendsassociated with the Pre-Raphaelites, a parallel movement in relation toRomanticism which included Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Edward Bume-Jones.The circle dedicated itself to the “purity of art and religion andthe service ofthings of the spirit in a world given over to Mammon.”8 Morris wrote poetryduring this time, reflecting these values and his preoccupation with themedieval. The Defense of Guenevere and Other Poems (1858), the first volumeof poetry he published and a very significant achievement of his early career,strongly reflected influences of Keats, Tennyson, and Browning, the increasinginfluence of medievalism, and the philosophy of “art for art’s sake.” TheDefense of Guenevere was a success for Morris, but shortly afterward, Morrissaw the visual and architectural arts to be more important in his artistic battleagainst “philistinism,” and he made them his primary focus.’9Toward the end of his time at Oxford, Morris traveled in England andFrance with Edward Burne-Jones, and the two spent time taking in and studyingthe medieval architectural sites. Soon after, Morris became articled (given atraining position) to the architect George Edmund Street. Morris was probablyan attractive candidate because he had acquired sophisticated knowledge ofarchitecture and the Gothic style from his studies and travels. Morris andBurne-Jones began to spend time with Rossetti who exerted a powerfulinfluence on the two of them. It was Rossetti who encouraged Morris in 1856 totake up the study of painting, which somehow he found time for while workingat Street’s firm. From the time he was at Oxford, friends and associates noticedthat Morris had a powerful sense of observation and keen ability to recall detail.Philip Webb, who worked for the firm became one of his lifelong friends, alsoshared his friend’s love of the medieval, and it was he who tutored Morris indrawing, a skill Morris needed for his work at Street’s firm.2 Just two yearslater, Morris completed the painting Le Belle Iseult.‘Thompson, 4041,77-78,86.10Ibid., 24. According to the Oxford English Dictionary Online, “mammon” means “an inordinatedesire for wealth or possession, personified as a devil or demonic agent (now rare). In later use (fromthe l6 Cent.) also (with more or less personification): wealth, profit, possessions, etc., regarded as afals go or an evil influence.” http://oed.com/viewfEntry /1 l3169?redirecteFrom mammon.Ibid., 1-10, 20-33.20Ibid., 44,45; Philip Henderson, ed., The Letters of William Morris (London: Longmans, Green &Co., 1950), 17-18; Raymond Watkinson, “William Morris as a Painter,” Witlia,n Morris: Art andKelmscott, ed. Linda Parry (London: The Boydell Press, 1996), 23-33.EX POST FACTO
The Medievalism of William Morris157La Belle IseultMorris’s painting, La Belle Iseutt (1858) (illustration no. I) is the onlycompleted easel painting of Morris’s that has survived. Morris’s work as adesigner, poet, contributor to the Arts and Crafts movement, and his socialistwritings and activism overshadow his work as a painter by far, but even so, LaBelle Isetttt is in the permanent collection of the Tate Gallery in London. TheFig. I L Belle lseult, William MorrisVOLUME XXII. 2013
158Suzanne 0 ‘Rourke Scanlonpainting is a considerable accomplishment since Morris had been painting anddrawing for only a short time before he executed it. 21In La Belle Isetilt, Jane Burden, who modeled for the painting, andwhom Morris later married, wears medieval dress, and so does a lyre player inthe background. Illustration no. 2 shows a costume (gown and sideless surcoat)that Morris designed around 1857 as a studio prop and was probably used in thispainting. The painting has sometimes been referred to as “Queen Guenevere,”but research points to Sir Thomas Malory’s (c. 1405-7 1) Le Morte d’Arthur (c.1470) as source of the subject matter. The small greyhound on the bed probablyrefers to the brachet (female hound) Malory wrote that Iseult always had withher, except when Sir Tristan was present. According to the Tate Gallery’sinterpretation, Iseult is mourning her lover Tristan’s exile from King Mark’scourt. Rosemary sprigs wrapped around her crown signify remembrance, andthe word “DOLOURS” (grief) is written on the side of the mirror. Iseult’s dress,the embroidered fabrics, the MiddleEastern carpets, the fleur-de-lys andpomegranate pattern covering the dressing table, and the hanging behind the bedwith its wide trees and motto emblazoning reflect medieval influences, and areexamples of the way Morris experimented with patterns and design in hisartwork. 22During this first phase of Morris’s career, his medievalism had maturedfrom the stage of adolescent fascination with the mystery of past times, into adisciplined form of expression. As the century advanced, new scholarshipadded to the conceptualization of the Middle Ages, transforming it from a“grotesque” or “fairy” world into a sense of its being a “real community ofhuman beings—an organic precapitalist community with values and art of itsown,” in sharp contrast with the Victorian. Over the following twenty years,Morris continued to establish himself as a poet, craftsman of decorative arts, andbusinessman. He and Jane Burden were married in 1859 and within a few yearshad two daughters. Morris built his first home, Red House, where he tried tocreate a world with values, manners, and architecture distinctly different fromthe Victorian style that he so wanted to reform. At Red House he laterincorporated a place to work and conduct the business of his design company,the Firm of Morris & Co., which he formed with Webb, Burne-Jones, and otherfriends and associates. Red House was a prototype for the artistic revival Morrisand his circle wanted to work for, and it helped lay the foundation for the Artsand Crafts movement.23Morris took on the challenge of reforming the “philistine” in thedecorative arts and promoting the medieval, not by attempting to copy it exactly,William Morris, “Le Belle Iseult,” Summary of painting from the Tate Gallery website,www.tate.org. -summary; Watkinson, 23-33; LeMorte Dartur: Sir Thomas Maloiy ‘s Book ofKing Arthur and ofHis Noble Knights, the Text ofCaxton, ed. & with intro. By Sir Edward Strachey, Bart. (London: MacMillan and Co. Limited,1899), 215 (Google e-book); Thompson, William Morris, 6.22Summary of painting from the Tate Gallery website; Watkinson, 33.23The British National Trust owns and maintains the house as an historic site, and it is open to thepublic.EX POST FACTO
The Medievalism of William Morris159but by working in the medieval spirit: a return to simple, detailed design, goodmaterials, and excellent workmanship. In this way, Morris distinguishedhimself from other medievalists who merely imitated Gothic features. Initially,Morris’s Firm met with resistance in the trade and among wealthy patrons, butby the 1 70s, Morris was beginning to find support for his work and eventuallyit became very popular among those who could afford it.24Morris was an intense critic of much of the craftsmanship andarchitecture that was being turned out. He referred to Gobelins, then the Frenchcenter of tapestry makers, as having become a “hatching-nest of stupidity.” Heoften remarked that the times he lived in were “an age of shoddy.” Throughconstant study and practice, Morris acquired a great deal of authority in his areasof expertise. Even if he sometimes strayed along with the Gothic imitators tosome degree, this authenticity was one of the driving forces behind his work,and he used it to inform his work as a designer.The Recognition of Sir Tristram by La Belle IsoudeAmong the Firm’s artistic output was stained glass. Morris’s stainedglasswork, The Recognition of Sir Tristram by La Belle Isoude (1862), is in aPreRaphaelite style, and serves as a good example of Morris’s commitment tohis artistic principles. Even as the Pre-Raphaelites eventually lost some of theirstatus in the world of art, artists working in this style, like Morris, made animportant contribution to nineteenth century stained glass because the work is sowell executed and very beautiful. Much of the other stained glass workproduced at this time, done by tradesmen and glass wrights, or in the GothicRevival style, was unexceptional in aesthetic quality. Revived interest in theMiddle Ages during the nineteenth century brought scientific research thatuncovered the authentic materials that medieval artists worked in, and madeMorris’s experimentation possible. Morris’s work in stained glass reflects theinfluence of his former employer G.E. Street, who criticized much of themodern stained glass he was seeing as cheaply produced and workman-like.Street advocated imitation of painters like Memling, Van Meckenen, Roger ofBruges, Van Eyck, William of Cologne, and others to produce glasswork withchiaroscuro, detail of attitude, and dress in its subjects.26The Recognition of Sir Tristram by La Belle Isoude (1862), a work instained glass commissioned by a Bradford merchant, Walter Dunlop, is a goodexample of Morris’s use of these techniques and qualities. Morris used light andshade in a way that made it look more like a painting than a work in glass. Thecomposition is reminiscent of the painting La Belle Iseult and may relate toanother of Morris’s paintings of a similar subject that has been lost. The settingincludes fabrics and furnishings of the kind Morris and his associates were using24Thompson, 93-95, 96-97, 248-249.Ibid., 93-95, 100-102, 175.26David O’Connor, “Pre-Raphaelite Stained Glass: The Early Work of Edward Bume-Jones andWilliam Morris,” in William Morris: Art and Ketmscott, ed. Linda Parry (London: The BoydellPress), 3843.VOLUME XXII 2013
Suzanne 0 ‘Rourke Scanlon160at the firm at this time. The setting also is composed in a deliberate and artisticway. The subject matter is medieval and one of Morris’s favorites, Tristan andIseult. David O’Connor suggests that the curled up dog could be a reference toDürer’s Melancholia, but it could also be the brachet that Tristan gave Iseult inMalory’s Le Morte d’Arthur, cited earlier. This stained glasswork, the paintingLa Belle Iseutt, and the poetry of The Defence of Guenevere are strong examplesof Morris’s PreRaphaelite works.27The Pre-R
The Medievalism of William Morris 155 Medievalism was a form ofrevolt against the prevailing utilitarianism Victorian times, that were in Morris’s words, pervaded by “bourgeoisdom and philistinism.” Morris sought to diffuse philistinism with his art: to “inject into the very sources o
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