Ithuriel

Evelyn De Morgan

before 1900

Oil [on canvas?]

Scanned image and text by George P. Landow

"Ithuriel, as represented by Mrs. De Morgan, has just found Eve and the tempter. He is accompanied by cherubs, whose threefold azure wings are as a blue cloud surrounding him. He wears a soft raiment, bright with mother-of-pearl tones. The draperies round the waist and body are rose-coloured, and so are the sleeves. The three pairs of wings, very well poised and admirably handled, are crimson-hued, with touches of grey-green here and there. Ithuriel has light hair, is pale-faced, and the well-drawn hands are as delicate as they could be. It may be thought that this Ithuriel is too mild — too much like Shakespeare's Oberon — to be in keeping with the terrific tragedy depicted in the first four books of the "Paradise Lost." Eve, too, lovely as she is, seems to bear no likelihood of resemblance to Milton's superb mother of mankind. But the picture has a sweet serene grace which should make us glad to accept from Mrs. De Morgan another Eve and another Ithuriel, true children of her own fancy." — W. Shaw Sparrow

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