Star of Bethlehem (painting)
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''The Star of Bethlehem'' is a
painting Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...
in
watercolour Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (British English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin ''aqua'' "water"), is a painting method”Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to t ...
by Sir Edward Burne-Jones depicting the
Adoration of the Magi The Adoration of the Magi or Adoration of the Kings is the name traditionally given to the subject in the Nativity of Jesus in art in which the three Magi, represented as kings, especially in the West, having found Jesus by following a star, ...
with an
angel In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God. Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles include ...
holding the star of Bethlehem. It was commissioned by the Corporation of the City of
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...
for its new Museum and Art Gallery in 1887,Wildman, pp. 293-94 two years after Burne-Jones was elected Honorary President of the
Royal Birmingham Society of Artists The Royal Birmingham Society of Artists or RBSA is an art society, based in the Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham, England, where it owns and operates an art gallery, the RBSA Gallery, on Brook Street, just off St Paul's Square. It is both a re ...
. At 101 1/8 x 152 inches, ''The Star of Bethlehem'' was the largest watercolour of the 19th century. It was completed in 1890 and was first exhibited in 1891.


Origin of the composition

In 1886, John Prideaux Lightfoot had approached
William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He ...
and Burne-Jones to create a
tapestry Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Tapestry is weft-faced weaving, in which all the warp threads are hidden in the completed work, unlike most woven textiles, where both the warp and the weft threads may ...
as a gift for their ''alma mater'' Exeter College, Oxford, suggesting the ''Adoration of the Magi'' as a subject. The two quickly agreed. Burne-Jones completed a 26 x 38 inch modello or design in watercolour and bodycolour heightened with gold in 1887. Morris and his assistant John Henry Dearle based the cartoons for the tapestry weavers on Burne-Jones's watercolour, changing the colour scheme and adding background details including the flowering plants characteristic of Dearle's tapestry work. The ''
Adoration of the Magi The Adoration of the Magi or Adoration of the Kings is the name traditionally given to the subject in the Nativity of Jesus in art in which the three Magi, represented as kings, especially in the West, having found Jesus by following a star, ...
'' tapestry was woven by Morris & Co. at Merton Abbey over the next two years and displayed in their London showrooms at Easter 1890 before being presented to Exeter College. The Adoration was ultimately the most commercially successful of all Morris & Co. tapestries. Of the ten versions woven, one is in
Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...
Chapel, one in the
Hermitage Museum The State Hermitage Museum ( rus, Государственный Эрмитаж, r=Gosudarstvennyj Ermitaž, p=ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)ɨj ɪrmʲɪˈtaʂ, links=no) is a museum of art and culture in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is the list of ...
,
St Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...
, one in the
Art Gallery of South Australia The Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA), established as the National Gallery of South Australia in 1881, is located in Adelaide. It is the most significant visual arts museum in the Australian state of South Australia. It has a collection of ...
, and one at Manchester Metropolitan University. The original hangs in the Exeter College Chapel.


The painting

The Birmingham commission gave Burne-Jones an opportunity to revisit his tapestry design as a full-scale painting. The colour palette with its rich blue-greens differs greatly from both the original watercolour modello and the Morris tapestry, and its large size allowed him to add a wealth of fine detail not possible in the tapestry version, especially in the clothing. Burne-Jones worked on a ladder, and wrote "a tiring thing it is physically to do, up my steps and down..." A photograph by Barbara Leighton Sotheby, preserved as a platinum print by
Frederick Hollyer Frederick Hollyer (17 June 1838 – 21 November 1933) was an English photographer and engraver known for his photographic reproductions of paintings and drawings, particularly those of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, and for portraits of liter ...
, shows Burne-Jones on his ladder in front of the work-in-progress. ''The Star of Bethlehem'' was completed in 1890 and exhibited at the New Gallery, London, in the spring of 1891 before being sent on to the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, where it remains. Burne-Jones used a different pose of the angel holding the star, this time in a warm colour palette, to illustrate the wildflower called Star of Bethlehem ('' Ornithogalum umbellatum'') in '' The Flower Book'', a collection of watercolours on themes inspired by the names of flowers that he completed between 1882 and 1898.


Notes


References

*Parry, Linda, ed., ''William Morris'', Abrams, 1996, *Wildman, Stephen
''Edward Burne-Jones, Victorian artist-dreamer''
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1998, *Wood, Christopher: ''Burne-Jones'', Phoenix Illustrated, 1997,


External links



working on ''The Star of Bethlehem'' by Barbara Sotheby, in the V&A.

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20080701025524/http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_En/03/hm3_3_2_6b.html ''The Adoration of the Magi''tapestry at the Hermitage Museum {{DEFAULTSORT:Star Of Bethlehem (Painting) 1890 paintings Paintings by Edward Burne-Jones Adoration of the Magi in art Collections of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery Angels in art Star of Bethlehem Watercolor paintings