Abstract

In 1855, the Pre-Raphaelite artist–poet Elizabeth Siddal was invited to examine John Ruskin’s collection of medieval manuscripts. Two years later, a manuscript—a Book of Hours, the popular late medieval prayer-book—appeared in Siddal’s painting Clerk Saunders. Siddal’s decision to include a Book of Hours in a scene from a medieval ballad encourages us to explore the painting’s creative strategies in new ways. This article examines how Clerk Saunders reinterprets the art of such prayer-books, focusing on Siddal’s reworking of the Annunciation. I shall explore the collision between this visual iconography and the language of the ballads from which the subject is taken, and trace how this literary-inspired pictorial dismemberment unsettles the medievalism of other Pre-Raphaelite works. I will demonstrate how Siddal’s disruptive medievalism is illuminated by queer theory; there have been queer readings of ‘Siddal’ the mythologized figure, but I will show how Siddal takes a queering approach to ballads and iconography in her art and poetry. My article will affirm Siddal’s work with the Book of Hours as an important contribution to Pre-Raphaelite medievalism, which speaks to anxieties about the destabilizing power of nineteenth-century creativity, and the tempestuous relationship between words and images across historical periods.

摘要

1855 年，拉斐尔前派艺术家兼诗人伊丽莎白·西达尔受邀检查约翰·拉斯金收集的中世纪手稿。两年后，一份手稿——一本时间之书，中世纪晚期流行的祈祷书——出现在 Siddal 的画作Clerk Saunders中。Siddal 决定在中世纪民谣的场景中加入一本书，这鼓励我们以新的方式探索这幅画的创作策略。本文探讨了Clerk Saunders如何重新诠释了此类祈祷书的艺术，重点关注西达尔对天使报喜的改造。我将探讨这种视觉图像与作为主题的民谣语言之间的碰撞，并追溯这种受文学启发的图像肢解如何扰乱其他拉斐尔前派作品的中世纪主义。我将展示 Siddal 的破坏性中世纪主义是如何被酷儿理论所阐明的；对神话人物“Siddal”有过奇怪的解读，但我将展示 Siddal 如何在她的艺术和诗歌中对民谣和肖像画采取奇怪的方法。我的文章将肯定 Siddal 与《时间之书》的合作是对拉斐尔前派中世纪主义的重要贡献，它表达了对 19 世纪创造力的不稳定力量的焦虑，