Sir Edward Burne-Jones presents an ambiguous
scene in his 1880 painting, The
Golden Stairs. The sharply vertical composition
accentuates a winding staircase, upon which eighteen
fair ladies descend, carrying various instruments and
wearing archaic dresses favored by the artist. As
Christopher Wood points out, The Golden Stairs
exemplifies the artist's mature style with its lack of
narrative detail and its emphasis on formal and
classical treatment of line and design (Wood 121).
There exists an obvious lack of clarity as to what the
purpose and destination might be for the descending
ladies, despite the apparent mood of joviality and
sisterhood. Several visual indicators might encourage
the viewer to interpret the scene as a result of Burne-Jones's Catholic influence, such as the verticality
and pearly-gold coloring of the staircase that
suggests divinity. The doves perched on the
Italian-styled roof may be associated with the Holy
Ghost, but the human bodies represented discourage the
viewer from being completely convinced of the
religious subject. Portrayed and referring to the
androgynous angels that appear in Leonardo da Vinci's
religious paintings, they lack only wings and a halo
for the viewer to assume they are descending to the
material world with their trumpets and harps for some
holy annunciation or heralding. In addition, the
timeless quality fostered in the painting disables the
viewer from applying a specific and geographical
context. The archaic dress, ethereal palette, and
apparent classical influence recognizable in the
controposto and frieze — like positioning of the
figures, encourage the timeless, even surreal theme of
the painting. This ensures that while the viewer may
not recognize time and place, they might easily
recognize the deliberate reference to something other
— worldly, whether religious or fantastic.
Questions
1. What other reference, if not religious, might this painting make? Most of Burne -- Jones's works are derived from Arthurian legends and mythology. Could this painting be seen as a continuation of mythological subject matter?
2. The title and the figures come across to the viewer as ambiguous with the exclusion of wings and the vague title. Wood describes the work as reminiscent of Italian altarpieces, due specifically to the upright construction of the canvas. If this painting is designed to echo religious altarpieces, both through the design of the canvas and the reference to Leonardesque figures, why might the artist purposefully deny the work clarification?
3. A small sliver of sky is perceivable above the terra cotta tiles. Below the staircase, a tree grows. While possibly interpretable as a separation between the heavens above and the earth below, why then does the artist choose an Italian villa to insert the staircase?
References
Waters, Bill. Burne-Jones -- A Quest for Love: Works by Sir Edward Burne-Jones Bt and Related Works by Contemporary Artists. London: Peter Nahum, 1993.
Wood, Christopher. The Pre-Raphaelites. New York: Studio/Viking, 1981.
Last modified 29 October 2004