by 威廉·霍爾曼·漢特(William Holman Hunt 1829-1896)
漢
特生於倫敦,少年時代曾有一段時間當事務員。1844年進入皇家美術學院,開始畫家生活。1848年和米雷及羅塞蒂組織“拉斐爾前派”,表明對十五世紀意
大利繪畫的共感。在繪畫手法上,標榜樸素非技巧的寫實主義。主題不受因襲的束縛,以真摯的宗教性和道德性為最主要的選擇標準。他自認是拉斐理論的指導者。
晚年所著的自傳就此成為有關此派的重要文獻。他作品的主題以精神和寫實主義技法共存,成為象征注意繪畫的一個典型。
About the artwork (National Museums Liverpool)
William Holman Hunt, along with other members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood such as Millais and Rossetti, is well represented in the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Sudley House and the Walker Art Gallery. This is thanks to both the support of local art collectors in Liverpool and the Liverpool Academy.
The Academy was responsible for the Liverpool Autumn Exhibitions. In
the 1850s artist members of the Liverpool Academy decided to award
prizes mainly to artists of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and in 1851
Hunt won the prize for the work 'Valentine rescuing Sylvia from Proteus' Valentine rescuing Sylvia from Proteus
Hunt
started work on 'May Morning on Magdalen Tower' in 1889. It is believed
that the theme had been in his mind since his visit to Oxford in 1851
when Hunt had enjoyed the Christmas festivities in Magdalen Hall. Hunt
explained his decision to paint a religious subject with a contemporary
appeal to his friend Edward Clodd, a writer on religion and ethics. He
said that theme of the painting was: "without offence in it …and the
public may even look at my pictures with more toleration, and it may
while satisfying me as a subject of the matter of fact kind, bring much
needed grist to the mill…" The ceremony's purpose was the
greeting of the sun on May morning from a high place and derived from
Druidical worship. Antony Wood first recorded the ritual: "the choral
ministers of Magdalen Colleges do, according to ancient custom, salute
Flora every year on the first of May, at four o'clock in the morning,
with vocal music of several parts which, having been sometimes well
performed, hath given greater satisfaction to the neighbourhood and
auditors below ". The ceremony was to become redundant but was
revived in 1840 by Dr JR Bloxam who introduced 17th century hymn and
organ music for it. He is featured prominently, (the man with the black
robe in the painting), amongst the row of Fellows. The president of the
College, Sir Herbert Warren is the younger man with the beard. Other
known members of the College include the organist and choir singers. The
most intriguing figure is that of the Parsee, a worshipper of sun, in
reality a merchant from the Indian Institute in Oxford. Hunt drew from
the pagan origins of the May morning ceremony, distinct in this work,
for the emphasis on the spiritual. Hunt included the sun worshipper to
suggest that all religions serve a common spiritual purpose. This fusion
of various traditions was perhaps too confusing and progressive for
Victorian society and it is no surprise that the painting remained
unsold. Lord Leverhulme bought it from Hunt's widow in 1919. Hunt
was born in London and demonstrated an early talent for painting.
However, he was forced to work as a clerk in the City by his father. He
managed to take up painting at the age of sixteen and registered as a
student at the Royal Academy in 1844. While still a student Hunt read
John Ruskin's 'Modern Painters' in 1847 and became influenced by the
idea of a moral purpose for art. Ruskin also encouraged artists to
carefully study nature and Hunt embraced this practice. Hunt's style is
easily distinguished from other Pre-Raphaelite
painters by the emotional intensity of his characters and his choice of
mainly religious and moral subjects. The Lady (Lever Art Gallery) has
some of the best examples.
The Lady In 1854 Hunt travelled in the Near
East, keen to expand his religious experiences and encounter new
artistic challenges. From Cairo he moved to Jaffa, before settling in
Jerusalem until 1855. From Jerusalem he travelled to Nazareth, Damascus
and Beirut. He returned to England in 1856. Throughout his travels Hunt
made numerous sketches and studies of local people and the landscape.
Hunt revisited Jerusalem between 1869 and 1872. His last visit to
Jerusalem was in 1892. Hunt's fascination with the Middle East
distinguished him from the rest of the Pre-Raphaelite artists.
Especially after his travels there, Hunt's work won critical acclaim
amongst private dealers rather than at the Royal Academy exhibitions. As
early as 1860 Hunt sold 'The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple' (now
at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery) to the dealer Ernest Gambart for
the amazing sum of £5,500. The Finding of the Saviour in the Temple
The Painting
Hunt attended the May Morning ceremony and made initial observations about it in 1888. The Walker Art Gallery
has a watercolour study of the details of the tower, which Hunt studied
for several weeks. For the figures in the painting he chose people from
St. Magdalen College but also used the choir of Westminster Abbey. Not
only did Hunt have problems with the choice of models but he also
realised that the ceremony was not popular with people outside the
Magdalen College, as he confessed in a letter to his wife after his
second stay in Oxford in December 1888. The vivid and individual
expressions of all the figures suggest that they were all modelled from
the choir as well as members of the College. The youth of the boys
reflects the fertility and blossoming of nature during May. The young
boy looking directly out at us is holding a lily, the symbol for St Mary
the Virgin and St Mary Magdalen to whom the College was dedicated. Hunt
was not really concerned with an accurate depiction of the ceremony and
that is why he does not include the people attending or a proper view
from the tower. In a letter to the 'Pall Mall Gazette' Hunt commented
that he wished the painting: "to represent the spirit of a beautiful,
primitive and in a large sense eternal service, which has only been in
part restored on the tower, even to the floral fullness of three
centuries since, but which still carries evidence in it of the origin of
our race and thoughts in the same cradle with the early Persians. This
was the kernel of the scene which I had to extract "
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