“The Last Judgment” by Edward Burne-Jones

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The Last Judgment

Designer: Sir Edward Burne-Jones

Manufacturer: Morris & Co.

1876

Stained glass

Church of St Mary Magdalene and St Michael

Easthampstead

This is the East window, financed by the lady of the manor, Georgiana (née Balfour), Marchioness of Downshire, as a result of a personal tragedy, in memory of her young husband, Arthur, fifth Marquis of Downshire who had died at the age of twenty-nine on 31 March 1874. [Commentary continues below.]

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Link to Related Material

Rebuilding St Mary Magdalene and St Michael, Easthampstead

Photograph and text by Cynthia Gamble

Reproduced by kind permission of The Rev. Guy Cole

A preliminary pen-and-ink design for the window, dated June 18, 1874 is now in the Royal Academy of Arts collection, London. Burne-Jones’s cartoon for it is housed in his home city, in the Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery (ref.1898P19 Burne-Jones 178-79).

The window is composed of three lights surmounted by a sexfoil rose window Dies Domini, the Day of the Lord. The central light shows the warrior Michael, Archangel and Saint (an appropriate subject for a church dedicated to him) dressed in a short tunic and holding in his left hand a balance scale in which the souls of the departed will be weighed in judgment, and a spear in his right hand. Angels blowing straight trumpets are depicted in the panels on each side.

Bibliography

Gamble, Cynthia. John Ruskin and his Oxford Tutor, Osborne Gordon. Victorian Web. 10 March 2020. [Return to Gamble].

Created 10 March 2020