The Calling of Perseus

The Calling of Perseus, painted in 1872 in oil on canvas and held at the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, is an early panel from the ambitious Perseus series that Burne-Jones developed across two decades. The series, ultimately intended to comprise ten large canvases, was begun for the politician and collector Arthur Balfour. The calling or commission of Perseus by the goddess Athena sets the hero on his quest to slay the Medusa — a narrative of divine selection, heroic purpose, and the encounter with the monstrous. Burne-Jones's treatment throughout the Perseus cycle emphasises the dreaming, reluctant quality of heroism: his Perseus does not stride forward confidently but is drawn into adventure as if by an irresistible but half-understood force. The Stuttgart holding represents the significant Continental European interest in Burne-Jones that developed particularly in Germany, where his work influenced a generation of Symbolist painters.

Oil on canvas at a substantial scale appropriate to the epic ambitions of the Perseus series. Burne-Jones uses the tall, vertical format characteristic of the Perseus panels, which emphasises the hierarchical relationship between divine figure and human hero. The cool blue-grey palette associated with Athena as goddess of wisdom and the celestial realm establishes a tonality of measured, purposeful fate.