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This intensely beautiful design shows the moment when the wounded Arthur is taken to Avalon by three queens. One leans over him in a tender gesture that is partly sexual and in part motherly. Though near death, the King is shown as a gigantic, heroic figure, almost too large to be contained in the boat. Maclise emphasises the notion of healing by rhyming a series of curving lines: the prow of the vessel, the sail above it and the domed apex all suggest a womb-like space in which Arthur will be reborn. These ‘feminine’ forms contrast markedly with the phallic symbolism of Excalibur in the first illustration for ‘Morte D’Arthur’, showing the start of his reign. The contrast of light and dark, death and life, further suggests the hero’s position, tenuously between his passing and his return. This was one of the most successful illustrations from the ‘Moxon Tennyson’, and was reprinted in several contemporary publications.

Bibliography

Tennyson, Alfred.Poems. London: Moxon, 1857.

Created 14 June 2018