‘The wild turtle doves’, by Paul Woodroffe for ‘The Little Flowers of St. Francis.’

The wild turtle doves

Paul Woodroffe

Photomechanical reproduction of pen and ink drawing.

4½ x 3 inches

The Little Flowers of St. Francis, facing p. 72.

Woodroffe’s vision of the natural world has the sacramental intensity of Pre-Raphaelite illustration and painting. The scene shown here typifies his mediation of the spiritual and the purely factual, a juxtaposition which fuses the saint’s act of love as he saves the doves from the table with the microscopic treatment of the material details. [Continued below]

Click on image to enlarge it.

Scanned image and text by Simon Cooke.

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the person who scanned the image and (2) link your document to this URL in a web document or cite the Victorian Web in a print one.]

This particularization is notably realized in the contrasts between the textures of three types of wood – the wicker basket, the rough planks of the bridge, and the bare, stringy branches in the background. Redolent of the engravings of Fred Sandys and, ultimately, those of Dürer, the image epitomizes Woodroffe’s projection of a magical world.

Bibliography

The Little Flowers of Saint Francis . London & Leamington: Art and Book Company, 1899.

Created 31 May 2016