cabinet stand

William Burges 1827 - 1888

Summary

Stand for cabinets, gilded pine carved with gothic columns and tracery, birds, mice and Islamic domes and set with small panels of mirrored glass and richly embroidered Indian velvet, the whole set on an inlaid marble base. The textile panel is embroidered with a central panel depiciting a mosque. The names of the family of the Prophet Muhammad are repeated round around the mosque: Fatima (his daughter), Ali b. Abu Taleb (his cousin and son-in-law, Fatima's husband), and Hussein and Hassan, The family of the Prophet is revered especially by the Shia Muslim community worldwide. Fatima and Ali's sons. There are also depictions of peacocks, deer and other animals. It originally stood on top of an earlier painted chest of drawers in Burges' bedroom on the Strand, then in his next home in Kensington. The stand was designed to display Burges' collection of Eastern objects. William Burges was an architect and designer who created the Arab Room at Cardiff Castle.

Display Label

Gallery text panel The Pre-Raphaelites in their Time Britain's first and best-known radical art movement emerged from within the Royal Academy in 1848. Its original members were rebellious art students who were disillusioned with contemporary practice. They looked back to Italian art before Raphael, seeing the pre-1500 period as one of great sincerity. They called themselves the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. In an age of rapid industrial and urban expansion, Pre-Raphaelite artists like Rossetti, Hunt and Millais, and pioneering design reformers such as William Morris, sought a return to pre-industrial values of art and design in truth to nature and materials, and good workmanship. In addition, the arts of the Middle Ages and Middle East were important sources of stylistic inspiration. The Bible, literature and contemporary life were preferred over subjects derived from classical mythology. The Brotherhood also rejected contrived studio lighting and took canvases outside to paint directly from nature. Although attempting to convey exactly what they saw, they created a heightened reality of dream-like intensity with minute details and bright, dazzling colours. Their art was a new kind of history painting for a new age.