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Lot Essay
The story of St Cecilia, a Roman virgin martyr who lived in the 2nd or 3rd century AD, entered the canon of Pre-Raphaelite subject matter in 1857, when Dante Gabriel Rossetti illustrated Tennyson’s poem The Palace of Art in the famous Moxon edition of the poet’s works. His typically idiosyncratic design portrays one of the images in the 'lordly pleasure-house' which the aesthete erects in order to cultivate beauty and isolate himself from the outside world:
Or in a clear-wall'd city on the sea,
Near gilded organ-pipes, her hair
Wound with white roses, slept St Cecily;
An angel look'd at her
From then on, the subject reappeared frequently. Burne-Jones often represented Saint Cecily in stained glass, notably in a window of 1875 in the Cathedral at Christ Church, Oxford, which not only shows her and her angels in the main lights but incidents from her life in 'predella' panels below. Other contemporaries who explored the theme included J.M. Strudwick, J.W. Waterhouse and E.R. Frampton. Of these, Waterhouse's version is the most ambitious and familiar. Exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1895, the picture was sold in these Rooms for a record price in June 2000.
Cecilia is famous in Christian iconography as the patron saint of music. Her connection with the art appears to stem from the legend that she rejected the sound of musical instruments that greeted her as she entered the house of her betrothed, having ears only for the heavenly music that required her to remain stainless in body and soul. In art, she usually betrays her patronal role by playing an organ; but she does not disdain other instruments, and the idea of her listening to celestial music is often represented by upturned eyes and choirs of angels.
Stillman chooses to depict Cecily as a girl, playing a psaltery and listening to heavenly voices as an attendant dresses her hair, the Tuscan countryside behind. Stylistically, the picture still owes much to Ford Madox Brown, under whom Stillman had studied for several years from 1864. There is also the clear influence of Rossetti, not from his treatment of the same subject, but in the use of the half-length female figure, having her hair dressed, which was a common theme of Rossetti’s later work. Rossetti had died the previous year, and there may be an element of memorial in Stillman’s composition.
The present watercolour was exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1883. This radical alternative to the Royal Academy had opened six years earlier, and immediately established itself as a showcase for the Aesthetic movement.
Or in a clear-wall'd city on the sea,
Near gilded organ-pipes, her hair
Wound with white roses, slept St Cecily;
An angel look'd at her
From then on, the subject reappeared frequently. Burne-Jones often represented Saint Cecily in stained glass, notably in a window of 1875 in the Cathedral at Christ Church, Oxford, which not only shows her and her angels in the main lights but incidents from her life in 'predella' panels below. Other contemporaries who explored the theme included J.M. Strudwick, J.W. Waterhouse and E.R. Frampton. Of these, Waterhouse's version is the most ambitious and familiar. Exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1895, the picture was sold in these Rooms for a record price in June 2000.
Cecilia is famous in Christian iconography as the patron saint of music. Her connection with the art appears to stem from the legend that she rejected the sound of musical instruments that greeted her as she entered the house of her betrothed, having ears only for the heavenly music that required her to remain stainless in body and soul. In art, she usually betrays her patronal role by playing an organ; but she does not disdain other instruments, and the idea of her listening to celestial music is often represented by upturned eyes and choirs of angels.
Stillman chooses to depict Cecily as a girl, playing a psaltery and listening to heavenly voices as an attendant dresses her hair, the Tuscan countryside behind. Stylistically, the picture still owes much to Ford Madox Brown, under whom Stillman had studied for several years from 1864. There is also the clear influence of Rossetti, not from his treatment of the same subject, but in the use of the half-length female figure, having her hair dressed, which was a common theme of Rossetti’s later work. Rossetti had died the previous year, and there may be an element of memorial in Stillman’s composition.
The present watercolour was exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1883. This radical alternative to the Royal Academy had opened six years earlier, and immediately established itself as a showcase for the Aesthetic movement.