Pre-Raphaelite Reads

Ever the avid reader I am always striving to expand my library and seek out invaluable reading material with which to expand my knowledge. Books are certainly my favourite gifts to both give and receive, so I was overjoyed to receive two beautiful books for Christmas, both on the subject of my favourite art movement; The Pre-Raphaelites.

'Pre-Raphaelite Drawing' focuses around the lesser seen Pre-Raphaelite studies, which were the subject of the 2011 exhibition 'The Poetry of Drawing' at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. 'The Pre-Raphaelite Language of Flowers', is an utterly fantastic insight into the Pre-Raphaelites extensive use of floral symbolism. Having been engrossed in this specific subject for a number of years, it has had an immense impact upon both my design work and my personal art work, so a well researched observation of The Pre-Raphaelites use of the Language of Flowers is both a wonderful reference tool, and a joy to read!

The Language of Flowers

The language of flowers is a concept which I am interest in introducing into my project. Having planned to theme my final project on flora and fauna for some time, the summer project was an odd coincidence. Initially I planned to create a natural project bursting with symbolism, and this is what I wish to return to.
The paper in the book prescribed for the summer project is far too lower quality to use for design work, so Ive begun my official sketchbook, made from 100% recycled cartridge paper, I will be binding the book myself once again. I am also eager to work in my own style and preferred media again.

I have taken a number of books out of the University library to read on floral symbolism within art and the Language of Flowers, although I am not a stranger to the topic. At college my specialist subject in fine art was The Pre-Raphaelites, famed for their heavy symbolism and use of nature (I also have experience with Vanitas art and Ontbijt).

The Language of Flowers rose to popularity in the Victorian era, when sending a posy was not something to be ill-considered, as every flower had a different and important meaning. The language was often used to express emotion, therefore causing the flower to become a powerful and potent symbol. Dictionaries were developed for users of the Language to ensure that they understood the meaning of a posy correctly. The meanings of the flowers often came from mythology, religion or scientific experimentation, and are surprisingly relevant and well considered.

A concept I have begun to work on is the idea of using flowers to express a trait, my first instinct was representing good and bad through floral symbolism, however this idea evolved into the idea of using the Seven Deadly Sins and Heavenly virtues as the basis for a collection of fabrics. I find the concept of people wearing a garment made of what symbolically represents 'Lust' or 'Wrath' and either revelling in this subliminal message, or being ignorant to it most enjoyable.
Although the language is largely disused now, we still cling to core symbolism from some flowers, such as purity from the white lily, love from the red rose, childhood from the daisy and vanity from the Narcissus. These surviving and widely known symbolic flowers do give a certain degree of hope that the language could be revived, if only to a few, as I do rather enjoy the passion and detail of floral symbolism.

In the bleak Midwinter …

A new semester and a new project begins, and still I’m attempting to catch up with my blog to focus on current work, a task that there just doesn’t seem enough hours in the day to accomplish!
The project, much to my delight, is entitled ‘In the Bleak Midwinter …’. The subject is very fitting as the assignment was given to us on a day thick with frost and snow, the landscape on my journey to university was the image of ‘bleak’, yet I did find myself, as always, looking to the trees and their bare twisted shapes on the snowy horizon. ‘Id love to do a project printing tree silhouettes and gnarled shapes’ I pondered, congering up all sorts of ideas in my mind. After displaying my work for assessment I received the next assignment, excited and eager I returned home to begin it.

After a little investigation I soon discovered that ‘In the Bleak Midwinter’ was a line taken from a Christina Rossetti poem. Being a Pre-Raphaelite obsessive I jumped at the chance to drag my favourite art movement into the equation in some minute way. As the idea of the poem began to escalate I found myself painstakingly writing out the poem, one line on each page, with the intention of it being a running theme and a mild commentary on my work. Pleased with my flow of ideas (even if I was creating excessive work for myself as usual) my enthusiasm for the new project was quite simply anything but ‘bleak’.