Souls on the Bank of the River Styx stick out of Edwarde Burne-Jones’ usual work due to it’s textured and gestural feel. The painting is depicting souls on their way to Hades and it is based on the Aeneid (Leicester Gallery). Compared to Jones’ other work, there is a startling lack of detail or environment in the painting. What this particular depiction of the underworld lacks in detail, it fills in with tone and emotion.
Jones is a pre-raphealite painter who passionately rejected industrialization, often depicting fantasy worlds without any trace of modernization. This particular painting was created in 1873, when Jones was 40 (Tate). Like Jones’ other work, this painting does not hold true to the modernization of the world around it, but unlike other paintings this one is dark with little detail, possibly symbolizing a contemplative time in his life that is closer to the end of his career.
While the environment is mostly left ambiguous and for the viewer to fill in, a sense of perspective is carried through the painting. As the figures recede to the back of the painting, they appear smaller and more faded. The figures seem to be standing on a slightly reflective surface against the backdrop of a sky which is a light green around the figure’s feet, giving them depth and creating an aerial perspective. There is no definite horizon in the picture and the ground seems to bleed into a sky. The environment is composed of dark blue and green gradients–colors that are willing to blend with each other to make subtle changes in the atmosphere.
The figures themselves are painted as hunched over and in anguish, the stark white popping forward from the dark background. The darker parts of the figures are transparent and letting the background show through, giving them a wispy ghost like essence. At first glance, I thought it was a depiction of The Three Shades by Auguste Rodin. The men all have a posture signaling that they are in some sort of pain or despair and like Jones’, the men are also descending to hell. The dark tone of the painting leads to a mysterious feeling that initially attracted me–the lack of information and the added perspective is just enough to let the viewer imagine the place, but fill it in with their own details and fears of the afterlife.
British Art 