Rated
Sep 03
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2 reviews
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arts, arthurian legend
• richmond.edu
September Blues
A good Arthurian art gallery. Blues of the month: "'I'm Half-Sick of Shadows', said the lady of Shalott" by Sidney Harold Meteyard (1913).
Lady of Shalott - a character of Arthurian legend - spends her life weaving and viewing 'shadows' of the real world through a mirror. "A curse is on her if she stay /To look down to Camelot" (A.Tennyson, 'The Lady of Shalott'). But her fragile world is broken into pieces one day when she sees Sir Lancelot riding by. Her reality "twice removed" (firstly by living in a tower on an island, away from civilisation and secondly by perceiving actuality through the mirror) crashes within seconds, which is symbolised by a crack in the mirror. "Tirra lirra", sings Sir Lancelot and makes Lady of Shalott turn her attention to reality. And the reality she faces is that Sir Lancelot will never share her love.
The image of the maiden who dies for love of Lancelot and whose dead body arrives in a boat at Camelot was very popular during the Victorian age, that's why the painting is on this web page - it mostly presents artwork by Victorian artists.
In this painting, the Lady of Shalott is unaware of what is in store for her. She's weaving and only at times - when she sees "two young lovers lately wed", for example - does she feel that she's "half-sick of shadows". But only half. What lovely undertones :)