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The graphic images that comprise this package are superior re-creations of borders, initials, headers, dividers and scrolls from the most famous of Walter Crane's works: the illustration of The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser.
Each element has been meticulously hand-drawn by AlfredoM in vector format.
Spenser’s Faerie Queene. A Poem in Six Books, with the Fragment Mutabilitie. Edited by Thomas J. Wise, Published by George Allen, 1894 -1897 in London.
The most important work in the whole long list of books illustrated by Walter Crane. It took 3 years to complete this work, originally published in parts, commenced in 1894, completed in 1896, and finished publishing in 1897. It represents one of the most impressive displays of Crane’s talents as a book illustrator.
Printed on fine hand-made paper that enhances Crane's designs, this set is a perfect blend of art, text and book design. Published one year after the Kelmscott Chaucer, Crane's work reflects his interest in Art Nouveau (Crane illustrated the first Kelmscott book).
While it is derivative and pseudo-Kelmscottian, as Muir asserts, it is nevertheless an excellent example of the British illustrated book as it anticipates the Art Nouveau at the end of the century
Go to the Faerie Queene CD page
where you can preview all the images that form part of this 2 CDs collection.
Go to the Walter Crane page
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The design of the borders.
The original volumes' graphics are all in black penwork and have been redrawn as in the original black. Most also have unique color renditions specially made for this collection.
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| “The wealth of ideas and forms, real and fantastic, which are embodied in the actual illustrations, and even more in the marvelous decorative border designs, is almost incredible! Besides the numberless presentments of the human figure in all its manly vigor and womanly grace, the whole range of nature’s forms, of animal and plant life, of fabulous, mythological inventions, of allegorical personifications, are worked into decorative designs of exquisite beauty. It would be petty, nay foolish, to try to find fault with certain very obvious shortcomings as regards anatomical drawing in a work which does not only stand unique as pure decoration, but speaks of an amount of knowledge and a wealth of imagination that command unrestricted admiration and respect” (Konody, p. 71). Ashley V, p. 196. Carpenter, p. 116. Engen, Crane, p. 102. Massé, pp. 47-48. |
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