Berengaria's alarm for the safety of her husband, Richard Coeur de Lion, awakened by the sight of his girdle offered for sale at Rome

Charles Allston Collins 1828 - 1873

Summary

Berengaria and two ladies-in-waiting pictured in large medieval hall, tapestries hanging from the walls, large table in the centre of the room on which Berengaria lays her embroidery, archways behind revealing gardens and hedges. Old man kneels on the floor to left showing his wares to the ladies, holding up elaborate belt which Berengaria recognises as that of Richard Coeur de Lion. She is standing, leaning over the table, wide eyed at the sight of it, her ladies-in-waiting behind. In the garden, young servant boy waits with pedlar's donkey. Exaggerated perspective given by tiled floor.

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.