“Isabella” was painted in Florence in days of great sadness; a year after the artist completed, with his own hand, the marble monument designed for his young wife.
“The Shadow of Death” (“Is not this the Carpenter”?) was painted on his return to the East, and yet again he went thither, to bring back with him “The Triumph of the Innocents” and “The Holy Fire.” A number of Mahommedan ladies, from the harem of a neighbouring “effendi,” came to the house at Jerusalem, and asked to see “The Innocents,” while it was still in progress. The leading lady counted up the figures.
“Seventeen babies in the large picture, and several more in the smaller one, with the Sib Miriam,[7] Al Issa Messiah, and Mar Jusif. This is very well,” she said, “but on the Day of Judgment what will you do?” “Ah,” I returned, “I can trust only in the mercy of the Beneficent; but why, pray, ask me that question?” She returned, “Because the souls of these beings that you have made will be required of you, and what will you say then?” My reply, justified on metaphysical principles, was, “I hope every one of these will be present to justify me.” She looked bewildered, but then turning to her flock, re-echoed my assurance, saying, “Oh, if indeed you can satisfy God the Just with their souls, it will be well with you!”[8]
Music and rosy dawn are the inspiration of “May Morning”; on Magdalen Tower a band of choristers chant their hymn to the Light of Heaven, according to ancient custom, upon the 1st of May. “The Lady of Shalott” is fresh in the recollection of all who have seen her. A larger version of “The Light of the World” has been purchased recently by Mr. Charles Booth, for the benefit of the nation. Since that time the artist has not been able to work.
In 1881 Rossetti died. His former comrade offered to visit him when he heard of the illness; but the offer was courteously declined by Mr. William Rossetti. In 1896 grave fears began to be expressed about Millais. “The truth of his doomed condition, at first resolutely ignored, came very suddenly to him, and then day by day he stepped down into the grave, but never lost his composure or noble personality.” These quiet words are the fitting close of the tribute paid to him by his oldest and greatest friend, in that book which is a record as much of friendship as of art.
III
THE SUBJECT PICTURES
“One scarcely express purpose in our reform, left unsaid by reason of its fundamental necessity, was to make art a hand-maid in the cause of justice and truth.” W. H. H.
“The vital ambition of an artist is to serve as high priest and expounder of the excellence of the works of the Creator—choosing the highest types and combinations of His handiworks, as the Greeks taught the after-world to do, so that men’s admiration may be fascinated by the perfection of the works of the Great Author of all, and men’s life thus may be a continual joy and solace.”