Danae and the Brazen Tower 1888

Editor: Here we have "Danae and the Brazen Tower," painted by Edward Burne-Jones in 1888, using oil paints. There's this intense feeling of isolation, isn't there? I mean, she's right there, but so distant from the world outside that… doorway? What catches your eye when you look at it? Curator: Oh, Danae's isolation practically hums, doesn't it? But for me, it’s always been that sliver of brazen light spilling into her tower, the way it promises and then... doesn't. Like a half-remembered dream where the sun forgot to shine quite brightly enough. Burne-Jones was fascinated by the push-and-pull between the sacred and the sensual; see how Danae, draped in crimson, becomes both the untouchable goddess and a very real, yearning woman? What do you make of that architectural structure hovering behind the trees? Editor: Well, it looks forbidding, like it's meant to imprison her, yet the people in the courtyard seem ordinary, caught up in their daily routines. It's like two worlds colliding. The red in the figure's dress emphasizes this, a little too violently I might say. Curator: Yes! But don’t you think that the contrast, the jarring note of it, is what ignites the symbolism? Danae is not just imprisoned; she’s held captive by expectation, by fate, by the very mythology that enshrines her. Burne-Jones, bless his soul, hints that beauty itself can be a prison, and maybe even a blessing? Almost ironic, how such controlled compositions have the potency to set a mind reeling free... So, thinking about Danae, her predicament… what stays with you? Editor: I suppose I never considered the layers of entrapment beyond the literal. Now, seeing her isolated and vibrant, makes her less a passive figure of myth and more of a powerful one defying boundaries. Curator: Precisely. It seems Burne-Jones has once again offered us a glimpse into his universe and our own. And what could be more sublime than the subtle blending of these visions into something new?