Illustrations and Ornamentation from The Faerie Queene

by Walter Crane, Carol Belanger Grafton (Editor)

This anthology's magnificent illustrations and decorations in the medieval style were created by famed artist Walter Crane in the 1890s to illustrate a sumptuous multivolume limited edition of The Faerie Queene, Edmund Spenser’s sixteenth-century allegorical epic poem. A tribute to Queen Elizabeth I, the poem celebrates holiness, temperance, chastity, friendship, and other virtues in verse tales of knightly adventure, courtly love, and acts of gallantry. Crane created these 352 magnificent illustrations and decorations in the rich nineteenth-century style of neo-medievalism made famous by William Morris and his Kelmscott Press, with which Crane was associated.

Crane's designs have been meticulously reproduced here, including striking images of gallant knights in armor, demure maidens, fearsome dragons, unicorns, angels, and a host of decorative elements — all displayed in a rich variety of full-page plates, finely detailed borders, and exquisite vignettes. Also included are charming headpieces, tailpieces, decorative initials, and the exquisite typography that originally appeared within the borders and other areas.

Sure to delight any admirer of Crane's dazzling style, this splendid archive, skillfully arranged by Carol Belanger Grafton, will also provide a wealth of inspiration and immediately usable graphics for artists and illustrators alike.

Genres: Art, Fiction

144 pages, Paperback

First published November 9, 1998

About the author

Walter Crane was an English artist and book illustrator. He is considered, along with Randolph Caldecott and Kate Greenaway, one of the strongest contributors to the child's nursery motif that the genre of English children's illustrated literature would exhibit in its developmental stages in the latter 19th century.

His work featured some of the more colorful and detailed beginnings of the child-in-the-garden motifs that would characterize many nursery rhymes and children's stories for decades to come. He was part of the Arts and Crafts movement and produced an array of paintings, illustrations, children's books, ceramic tiles and other decorative arts. Crane is also remembered for his creation of a number of iconic images associated with the international Socialist movement.

Reviews

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good way to attract someone to the real thing. 3.5 stars.