威廉·莫里斯 威廉·莫里斯 | 騎士之夢

William Morris was a committed pacifist, so why did he own a sword? I'm Roisin, Senior Curator at the William Morris Gallery, and today I'm going to be talking about some origins of the Arts and Crafts Movement. The Arts and Crafts Movement begins in two places. One is in Oxford in the mid-19th century, the other is in Medieval Europe. Influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites, a group of artists who wanted to take art back to the time before the Renaissance painter Raphael. Arts and Crafts practitioners took inspiration from the 13th and 14th centuries. This sword and bascinet helmet were created in 1857 for a set of murals that Morris and his colleagues designed for the Oxford Union building. No surviving medieval examples were known, so Morris designed these himself and modelled them for the Oxford Union murals. He also apparently sometimes dressed up in them for dinner. They were created by a blacksmith in Oxford, but Morris visited the forge every day to check on their progress, a habit of close involvement in the manufacture of his designs that he never lost. The sword is made of steel with a decorative pommel and a wooden grip. On the crossguard you can see a small floral decoration, a hint at Morris's interest in the natural world. The bascinet helmet is typical of the designs of the 14th century. It has a faceguard and a chainmail curtain to protect the neck. These pieces are typical of the Arts and Crafts movement. There's a huge amount of interest in historical accuracy and detail, but there's also a real personal involvement, a romantic engagement with the Middle Ages. Similar objects make their way into other works by Morris and co. For example,stained glass design by Dante Gabriele Rossetti, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum. In Edward Burne-Jones's Holy Grail tapestry series, a maiden holds a very similar shaped helmet. So did William Morris consider himself a knight in shining armour? He was certainly on a crusade of sorts against what he saw as the ugliness of Victorian design and the social conditions that produced it. The chivalric culture of the Middle Ages provided an endless source of fascination for Morris and is an essential backstory in understanding Arts and Crafts design.