The Beguiling of Merlin and Arthurian imagery

 When the Grosvenor Gallery opened its doors in 1877, its first exhibition featured many works by artists that have since catapulted them to freedom. Indeed, Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898) contributed numerous works after a hiatus of seven years, in which he did not exhibit at all. Among the works displayed at the inaugural Grosvenor Gallery exhibition was the work below, entitled Beguiling of Merlin: 

   Edward Burne-Jones, The Beguiling of Merlin, 1872-77, oil on canvas, 186 x 111 cm, Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight, UK  

Within a swirl of blossoms of the hawthorn bush, Merlin reclines, his body draped over the limbs of the foliage. His hands dangle, his gaze pleads; he is melancholy and seemingly physically oppressed as he is cursed by Nimue, also known as Vivienne, also known as the Lady of the Lake. She, in stark contrast, towers over Merlin, her gaze and posture strong, while her drapery winds itself, snake-like, around her body. In her hands she holds Merlin's book. 

The theme of entwinement runs throughout the composition. Merlin himself is physically entangled among the hawthorn bush, while Nimue is entangled by her drapery. Equally, so is her hair intertwined with decorative chords, as her hair flutters on a breeze. 

When the work was exhibited in 1877, Oscar Wilde commented that Burne-Jones was "a dreamer in the land of mythology, a seër of fairy visions, a symbolical painter" (Oscar Wilde, "The Grosvenor Gallery", Dublin University Magazine 90, no. 535 (July 1877): 118). The story of Nimue and Merlin was taken by Burne-Jones from Le Mort d'Arthur (originally spelled as le mort Darthur), a 15th-century prose work by Sir Thomas Malory. A very popular work of Arthurian literature with the Pre-Raphaelites, Burne-Jones drew inspiration from the imagery the stories provided. Similarly, Alfred Tennyson, the poet, drew inspiration from the medieval epic, writing his own "Mort d'Arthur" in the 1850s, publishing it together in Idylls of the King in 1859. Hence, when Burne-Jones exhibits his Arthurian composition, Oscar Wilde immediately compares it to Tennyson, drawing parallels between the visual and poetic renditions, respectively: "He [Merlin] is not drawn as Mr. Tennyson has described him, with the 'vast and shaggy mantle of a beard', which youth gone out had left in ashes; smooth and clear-cut and very pale is his face; time has not seared him with wrinkles or the signs of age; one would hardly know him to be old were it not that he seems very weary of seeking into the mysteries of the world, and that the great sadness that is born of wisdom has cast a shadow on him" (Wilde, "The Grosvenor Gallery", 122). Wilde laments Burne-Jones's depiction of Merlin as weary: "His eyes, glazed with coming death, and his white and delicate hands that wrought of old such works of marvel, hang listlessly". Vivien, or Nimue, on the other hand. "a tall, lithe woman, beautiful and subtle to look on, like a snake, stands in front of him, reading the fatal spell from the enchanted book; mocking the utter helplessness of Merlin" (122). Indeed, Wilde identifies the coils in Nimue's hair as a "golden snake, and she is clad in a silken robe of dark violet that clings tightly to her limbs, more expressing than hiding them; the colour of this dress is like the colour of a purple sea-shell, broken here and there with slight gleams of silver and pink and azure; it has a strange metallic lustre like the iris-neck of the dove [...] The picture is full of magic" (122). 

The Spectator admired Burne-Jones's ability as a painter, but considered Nimue to be "unduly long". Regardless, they, too, thought the painting was 'full of magic' and commended its "delicious pieces of subdued colour", especially the hawthorn bush, "which is quite unsurpassable in delicacy and truth" ("The Grosvenor Gallery", The Spectator 50, no. 2551 (May 19, 1877): 632). 

The Saturday Review completely dismissed the bodily figure of Nimue, the author of the review considering her body to be "utterly impossible". They write, "there would be much to admire in her face and attitude if one could shake off the unpleasant impression caused by the false drawing of her figure". Yet they admired the capture of "great power" in Merlin's face ("The Royal Academy", The Saturday Review 43, no. 1124 (May 12, 1877): 580). 

Burne-Jones often got negative comments on the limbs of his figures, particularly the women. They were considered sick, their limbs too long, their faces too melancholy; one critic even considered the facial expressions of many of Burne-Jones's women to be vacuous. But The Beguiling of Merlin was so popular, its composition and skill in colour consistently praised in the press, that Aubrey Beardsley was inspired to draw his own Merlin and Merlin and Nimue in 1893-4. 

Merlin

Aubrey Beardsley, Merlin, 1893-4, pen-and-ink on paper, for Le Morte d'Arthur 

Beardsley's picture feels, as did Burne-Jones's painting, claustrophobic, Merlin caught in a web as he reaches for freedom, his fingers elongated and delicate. The circular composition that Beardsley employs enhances this feeling of entrapment, as Merlin is quite literally pushing his feet against the sides of the circle. 

                                            Aubrey Beardsley, Merlin and Nimue, 1893-4, for Le Morte d'Arthur 

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