Collection Highlights: Western Art
The Prioress’s Tale cabinet
Philip Webb (1831–1915) and Sir Edward Burne-Jones (1833–1898), wood, 222 cm high. Designed by Webb in 1857, and decorated by Burne-Jones with scenes from the tale told by the Prioress in The Canterbury Tales.
Chaucer's portrait (following that in Occleve's manuscript) is shown at the bottom on the right. This was Burne-Jones's first major foray into oil painting, and formed his wedding present to William Morris at Morris's marriage to Jane Burden in 1858. [Bequeathed by May Morris, 1939. WA1939.2].
Third Floor, Room 67, Pre-Raphaelites