I recently posted a photo of my Victorian mourning cape collection on my Instagram account so I’ve decided to share it with those who follow me on Tumblr! These have been enhanced for your detail viewing pleasure of course.
I am a huge sucker for detail and intricate patterns. There is something about these pieces that made me fall in love with collecting these items in the first place.
(Please do not take these photos without my permission. Thank you!)
Tree & Two Birds Animated Clock c. 1890 Under a glass dome; two birds near a small waterfall. One bird flying from branch to branch, the second bird pulling a worm out of the ground.
William Harnett (1848-1892) “Still Life with Flute, Vase and Roman Lamp” (1885) Oil on wood Located in the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Connecticut, United States
Thispainting is a meditation on love; it depicts Dante’s Divine Comedy, pages from a 1680 Roman prayer book, the cover of Giuseppe Verdi’s opera La traviata, sheet music from the 1859 French opera Dinorah hangs over the edge of the cabinet. The primary themes of these literary and musical works assert that true love is able to transcend the temptations of the material world.
This painting portrays a scene from one of the only stories in the Old Testament to focus on the strong love bond between two women, the Book of Ruth. Calderon shows Naomi returning to her native land from Moab. She is trying to dissuade her two daughters-in-law, Ruth and Orpah, both Moabite women, from accompanying her. Orpah, the figure on the right, stays behind in Moab but Ruth, the central figure, insists on going with Naomi. She is shown passionately embracing her mother-in-law and asserting her continued commitment to her. This is the moment described in the book where Ruth declares: ‘where you go I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge; your people will be my people and your God my God’ (Ruth 1: 16). Some scholars and historians have recently noted the closeness of this speech to contemporary wedding vows.
The story of Ruth and Naomi has traditionally been treated as a story of devoted but platonic friendship between two women. More recently it has been suggested that the love between the two women might have been better described as a romance, or even sexual in nature. Trevor Dennis, Vice Dean of Chester Cathedral, for example, described the relationship between Ruth and Naomi as ‘the great love story of the bible’.* The story has become particularly important for members of the Jewish lesbian community seeking historical role models of female romantic love. This painting could be interpreted as reflecting these views. The embrace between the two women, certainly suggests an eroticism or passion that exceeds the normal bounds of friendship.
