View source for Sponsa de Libano

{{Short description|1891 painting by Edward Burne-Jones}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox Artwork
| image_file= Sponsa de Libano.jpg
| backcolor=
| painting_alignment=
| image_size=180px
| title= Sponsa de Libano
| artist= [[Edward Burne-Jones]]
| year= 1891
| type= [[Gouache]] and [[tempera]] on paper
| height_metric= 332.5
| width_metric= 155.5
| height_imperial=
| width_imperial=
| metric_unit= cm
| imperial_unit= in
| city= [[Liverpool]]
| museum= [[Walker Art Gallery]]
}}
'''''Sponsa de Libano''''' ('''''The Bride of Lebanon''''') is a painting by the [[Pre-Raphaelite]] artist [[Edward Burne-Jones]] dated 1891.
The painting is based on extracts from the [[Song of Songs|Song of Solomon]] in the Bible.<ref>{{Citation | url = http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ladylever/exhibitions/drawings/studies/sponsadelibano.asp | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060524112720/http://liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ladylever/exhibitions/drawings/studies/sponsadelibano.asp | url-status = dead | archive-date = 24 May 2006 | title = Study for Sponsa de Libano | access-date = 24 April 2010 | publisher = [[National Museums Liverpool]] }}</ref>  "Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse&nbsp;..."<ref>Chapter 4, verse 8, [[Authorized King James Version|King James Version]]</ref> "Awake, O north wind; and come thou south; blow upon my garden&nbsp;..."<ref>Chapter 4, verse 16, [[Authorized King James Version|King James Version]]</ref>  It may be relevant that at her appearance in [[Dante]]'s ''[[Purgatorio]]'' [[Beatrice Portinari|Beatrice]] is accompanied by a group of female attendants singing ''Veni sponsa de Libano'' from the ''Song'' (''Purgatorio'', Canto XXX, line 12).<ref>Greave, Alastair, in ''The Pre-Raphaelites'', pp 210-211, 1984 (exhibition catalogue, various authors), Tate Gallery, London, {{ISBN|0713916389}}</ref>
The painting shows the bride walking in the garden with female [[personification]]s of the two winds blowing towards her.  On each side of the bride are white lilies, symbolising her virginity.  The pose of the bride is inspired by [[Sandro Botticelli|Botticelli's]] figures.  The painting is based on an earlier design by Burne-Jones for a [[tapestry]].<ref name=wag>{{Citation | year = 1994| title = The Walker Art Gallery| publication-place = London| publisher = Scala| page = 76| isbn = 1-85759-037-6}}</ref>
''Sponsa de Libano'' forms part of the [[Victorian era|Victorian]] collection in the [[Walker Art Gallery]], [[Liverpool]], [[Merseyside]], England.  It is painted in [[gouache]] and [[tempera]] on paper and measures {{convert|332.5|cm|in|0}} by {{convert|155.5|cm|in|0}}.  The picture was purchased by the gallery in 1896.<ref name=wag/>  In the same year the gallery purchased a study for the painting.  This had been prepared in about 1891, drawn in chalk on paper, and shows the head used for one of the winds.  The model was a twelve-year-old Jewish girl, who modelled for both winds, and was told to "look wild and blow with your lips".  The study is now held by the [[Lady Lever Art Gallery]] in [[Port Sunlight]], Merseyside.<ref>{{Citation | url = http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ladylever/exhibitions/drawings/studies/sponsadelibano.asp | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20060524112720/http://liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ladylever/exhibitions/drawings/studies/sponsadelibano.asp | url-status = dead | archive-date = 24 May 2006 | title = Study for Sponsa de Libano | access-date = 24 April 2010 | publisher = [[National Museums Liverpool]] }}</ref>
==See also==
* [[List of paintings by Edward Burne-Jones]]
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==Further reading==
*{{cite book |author=Wildman, S| title= Edward Burne-Jones, Victorian artist-dreamer | location=New York | publisher=The Metropolitan Museum of Art | year=1998 | url=http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15324coll10/id/67586}}
{{Edward Burne-Jones}}
{{Song of Songs}}
[[Category:1891 paintings]]
[[Category:Paintings by Edward Burne-Jones]]
[[Category:Paintings in the Walker Art Gallery]]
[[Category:Paintings based on the Song of Songs]]