Like his fellow Pre-Raphaelite artists, Edward Burne-Jones' paintings often included an array of mythological subjects, from ancient Greece to the bible. Burne-Jones was extremely interested in mythology from a young age, creating a dream world for himself to compensate for his harsh upbringing at the hands of the strict housekeeper. This fascination with myths, particularly the Arthurian legend, continued for his whole life and Burne-Jones' art was reaction against the `moral ugliness' of the industrial world he grew up in, where realism had taken over in art. Julia Cartwright wrote in `The Art Annual' of 1894 that `the art of Burne-Jones from first to last has been a silent and unconscious protest against the most striking tendencies of the modern world'. Burne-Jones' work is nostalgic and he wanted to bring the beauty, passion and spirit of these classic myths back to art.

Burne-Jones was particularly inspired during a visit...