Venus Looking Glass 1905

Curator: Oh, I find this so subtly moving. "Venus Looking Glass," a drawing from 1905 by Edward Burne-Jones. What springs to your mind when you see it? Editor: The moon hangs heavy. She's isolated. The birds... a kind of living necklace? It's dreamlike, definitely, but almost sorrowful. Curator: There's a quietude about Burne-Jones, a yearning. The Arts and Crafts movement loved drawing on classical myth – Venus, of course, is Aphrodite to the Greeks. Looking at herself, reflecting… or yearning for some perfected other. The coloured pencil gives it such a soft focus, like a memory. Editor: Self-reflection… yes. And that circle shape feels important, a little window or a looking glass. What is reflected could be what Venus desires but maybe it is not entirely fulfilled in real life, so is kept confined and preserved inside her imaginary safe-space. It is, literally, self-contained. And the birds feel like they're on the edge of dissolving into water. I wonder about them. Curator: Ah, the birds... traditionally associated with Aphrodite! Doves, especially, but other seabirds were sacred to her, because she herself sprang from the sea foam. These almost feel like familiars, or thoughts circling. What you've said makes me think about identity. This feels like Venus considering, constructing her very self, doesn't it? Editor: Exactly! They protect the looking-glass realm in a way, completing her personal mythology in this miniature universe. But are they messengers of freedom or servants to beauty? Curator: The eternal questions. I always find with Burne-Jones that he lets me settle into my own questioning – and feel less pressure for definitive answers. Editor: Well, I think I need to sit with that solitary moon a bit longer, contemplate my own reflections in a figurative looking glass. Thanks!