Visualizing Camelot: Iconic Images

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Anna-Marie Ferguson (Canadian, b. 1967). Excalibur. An original watercolor.

The Arthurian legends are not just one story but a complex of interwoven tales, many of them fascinating even when separated from the larger framework of the achievements of Arthur’s court and the progression of his reign. This narrative richness helps to explain the continuing popularity of these medieval stories. Among the dozens of characters and plots that are associated with Camelot, a few are iconic and therefore central to any large-scale retelling of the legends or extended program of illustration:

  • Arthur Drawing the Sword from the Stone
  • Arthur Receiving Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake
  • The Arthur-Guinevere-Lancelot Triangle
  • Merlin and Vivien / Nimue
  • Elaine of Astolat / The Lady of Shalott
  • Tristram and Isoud Drinking the Love Potion
  • The Quest for and the Achieving of the Grail
  • The Rescue of Guinevere
  • Arthur’s Final Battle
  • Arthur in the Barge to Avalon

Artists often treat these characters and scenes in vastly different styles. One of the most frequently illustrated of Tennyson’s Arthurian characters, for example, is Elaine of Astolat or the Lady of Shalott, essentially variations of the same figure. In some representations, Elaine is depicted caring for Lancelot’s shield, while the Lady of Shalott is pictured weaving at the loom or gazing through a mirror. In both cases, because of her unrequited love for Lancelot, she is often portrayed as dying or dead in the barge that takes her body to Camelot. As Muriel Whitaker has observed in her study of King Arthur in Art, excluding the many book illustrations of the Lady of Shalott/Elaine, at least eighty recorded versions of the subject were produced before World War I. And there were numerous illustrations and numerous artworks, like some of those in this exhibition, that are in private collections and therefore not “recorded.”

Other  iconic Arthurian images in addition to those displayed here can be found elsewhere throughout the exhibition.

All text for Visualizing Camelot © by Alan Lupack and Barbara Tepa Lupack, 2023-2024.
Visualizing Camelot: Major Authors
Visualizing Camelot: Iconic Images