The Pre-Raphaelites, English artists of the 19th century who drew inspiration from medieval legends and myths, painted many paintings dedicated to this time. But only to study on them history and historical costumes is clearly not worth it, they treated it very freely, often made various errors, leading to horror of any person interested in historical reconstruction. Perhaps this was because they reflected only an idealized view of the Middle Ages, and aesthetics and external decorativeness were dominant in their paintings.
Frederick Burton. Hellelila and Hildebrand: meeting on the tower steps
The Pre-Raphaelites loved pathos and romance, and were not too interested in actually existing medieval costumes; a single painting could depict furnishings that existed in different eras and by different peoples separated by centuries. We will talk about the most blatant inconsistencies in the famous paintings of the Pre-Raphaelites in this article.
John Waterhouse. Tristan and Isolde with a potion
For example, in the painting "Tristan and Isolde with a potion" by John Waterhouse, Isolde is dressed in clothes worn at the end of the XIII century, and Tristan is painted in full armor of the end of the XV century - they were made by special order for rich knights and feudal lords by German masters. That is, if we extrapolate this absurdity to our time, it turns out that a modern guy meets a girl in a XIX century outfit, who takes this great-grandmother's clothes for granted.
John Waterhouse painted wonderful pictures, but did not think too much about their historical accuracy. Such is the painting "I am haunted by shadows", dedicated to the poem "The Enchantress of Shalott".
John Waterhouse. Lady Shalott. "I am haunted by shadows."
According to the story, a cruel curse was placed on a poor girl and she was forced to spend her entire life in the tower of the castle and weave a tapestry, unable to even look out the window. The only connection with the outside world is a magic mirror that shows various miracles. That is, in some ways it resembles our TV set, spinning the central TV channels. So it is not surprising that the girl was tired of all this and one day she looked smugly out of the window, saw there a beautiful Lancelot and fell in love with him. But only the curse did not go anywhere and the girl had not long to live.
The picture itself reminds a frame from a beautiful and expensive Hollywood fairy tale, in which there are a lot of inconsistencies. The dress is completely fictitious, it could not exist in reality, and the round mirror - and it is a magic mirror, not a window - does not look like a medieval one, because it is too big and flat - in those times it was convex due to imperfect technology.
Edmund Blair Leighton. Allocade
Artist Edmund Blair Leighton painted a picture inspired by the beautiful and romantic process of allocade, i.e. knighting. Except that he got a little confused with the knight's armor.
The "hauberk" type of chain mail, consisting of many intertwined rings, tightly fits the body and minimizes restriction of movement. It was popular in the X-XII century, and at that time a warrior who showed himself on the battlefield could well be elevated to the rank of knight. Except that next to the knight is an Italian barbut - helmet, which was used only since the XV century. And the girl, dedicating to knights, is written with loose hair, and so could walk or saints, or promiscuous, but certainly not a self-respecting noble lady.
John Everett Mille to the accurate depiction of the armor of Joan of Arc approached thoroughly and at first glance there is nothing to quibble with. But only these German armor, appeared only after 150 years, and cost a fortune.
In general, the paintings of the Pre-Raphaelites should be treated as a screen version of a beautiful fairy tale, but God forbid to study history and historical costumes.
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