The Book of Old English Songs and Ballads 1920

Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale created this watercolor illustration for a collection of Old English Songs and Ballads. It visualizes the medieval Boy Bishop tradition which persisted in England up to the Reformation. Here we see the artist drawing on a tradition within the Church, where a child was elected to perform the duties of a Bishop for a brief period around Christmastime. This carnivalesque ritual allowed for the temporary inversion of social hierarchies. The picture playfully combines human and angelic, religious and natural elements. It’s all very characteristic of the Arts and Crafts movement, in which Fortescue-Brickdale participated. This movement was particularly interested in pre-industrial methods of production, and in the revival of medieval artistic styles and themes. The movement's artists and theorists were often concerned with what they saw as the dehumanizing effects of industrial capitalism. Through an understanding of such social and institutional histories, we can come to appreciate how this image encapsulates the aesthetics and values of its time.