neo–queen–serenity: preraphaelist: the vampire by philip burne-jones (1897). th

neo–queen–serenity:

preraphaelist:

the vampire by philip burne-jones (1897). the model is actress mrs patrick campbell; burne jones was the oldest son of pre-raphaelite painter edward burne-jones.

This photograph looks like it was deliberately mimicking the posing from several of the famous incubus paintings from the gothic romanticism era—pointedly Henry Fuseli’s “The Nightmare”. In those paintings, it’s usually the incubus who’s sitting atop the “helpless victim”—i.e. the person suffering from either sleep paralysis or simple wet dreams (sexual repression being all the rage, at the time).

As Burne-Jones was the son of a pre-rephaelite painter, it’s no surprise that he would turn to the most popular gothic subjects of the past hundred years as inspiration for this piece.

He also brings to our attention another valuable fact, one that shouldn’t be lost on us: that the sex appeal of a vampire was just as alluring then as it is now.