Dante Gabriel Rossetti
This exhibition was held at the Walker Art Gallery in 2003/4.
Illustration in 'Poems by Alfred Tennyson', published by Edward Moxon, Wood engraving by Dalziel brothers after Rossetti's design, published 1857, 9.4 x 8cm, Stephen Calloway
Inspired by the lines describing Sir Galahad's discovery of a mysterious shrine on his quest for the Holy Grail.
Then by some secret shrine I ride;
I hear a voice, but none are there;
The stalls are void, the doors are wide,
The tapers burning fair.
Fair gleams the snowy altar-cloth,
The silver vessels sparkle clean,
The shrill bell rings, the censer swings,
And solemn chants resound between.
Rossetti uses the ingenious invention of a concealed choir of angels for the hidden voices in the poem.