New Bedroom & Dungeon Art

So after many months of careful deliberation.. I finally picked out an artwork for my bedroom wall beside my bed. It will be the first thing I see when I get up every morning and the last thing I see before I close my eyes (unless of course My Brett is home), so it was a fairly important decision for me.

I chose “Flaming June” by Lord Frederic Leighton painted in 1895. (pictured right) I love the vibrant color of this one, the soft textures of her hair and dress and of course the beautiful sleeping maid. I read somewhere that the poisonous Oleander plant on the shelf beside her symbolises the fragile link between sleep and death. Hmm maybe not the sexiest thought to embrace as your close your eyes at night, but I find it work itself quite peaceful and soothing.

I seem to have a natural inclination toward “Victorian Era” art because I remember walking into “Prints Plus” many years ago, to select art for my first dungeon and picked four pieces that seemed to compliment each other well and seemed suited to what I envisioned in a dungeon. Please keep in mind that I do not claim to know ANYTHING at all about art but I definitely know what I like and what I don’t.

Of the ones I chose for the play space my favorite is “The Accolade” by Edmund Blair Leighton painted in 1901 (one year after my house was built in fact). This is one of my favorite paintings of all and I love how beautiful the knight on his knees looks with his head bowed in service to his Queen and that she shows her appreciation for his service. There is a truly beautiful elegance to this exchange.

I think I rather like the notion of service that is offered and accepted even appreciated this way as opposed to so much of the FemDom propaganda that revolves around humiliation and degradation. I do not like treating people like crap .. I am a sadist yes and will thoroughly relish freely offered gifts of pain and suffering but I don’t think I have to also look down on those that make that offering as if they are “less than”, unworthy or “beneath me”. I love the idea of a knight in shining armor willingly offering all that he is and has and can to properly serve his lady, even if she is a wicked sadist. <grin>

Another of my favorite paintings from my playrooms is “The Young Martyr” by Paul Delaroche painted in 1855. I had no idea what the painter envisioned when I bought this. I saw rope, and a serenely peaceful look upon her face and fell in love with it because it looked like “ropey sub space” to me.

Of course the version I have hanging in the playroom is cropped to about half the height shown here so it doesnt show the weird shadow figure in the background that appears to be dancing or something. Yeah a little weird .. I like the peaceful “floating ropey space” idea better.

One of the other framed pieces in my dungeon actually consists of three pictures framed together. One of them is “Godspeed” also by Edmund Blair Leighton painted in 1900.

The other two are both entitled “La Belle Dame Sans Merci” which translates to “The Beautiful Lady Without Pity” which I think is a wonderful name for paintings in a dungeon of a professional female sadist, don’t you? This is also the name of a ballad by John Keats written in1819 as well as an earlier work by Alain Chartier in the 1400’s which although of the same name have different themes.

I love Wikipedia for it’s succinct summary of said ballad:

Keats’ poem describes the condition of an unnamed knight who has encountered a mysterious woman who is said to be “a faery’s child.” It opens with a description of the knight in a barren landscape, “haggard” and “palely loitering.” He tells the reader how he met a mysterious but very fair lady whose “eyes were wild.” The damsel told the knight that she “loved him true” and took him to her “elfin grot” but upon arriving there, she “wept, and sigh’d full sore.” Having realized something that the knight does not yet understand, the mysterious maiden sets the knight to sleep. The knight has a vision of “pale kings and princes,” who cry, “La Belle Dame sans Merci [the beautiful, pitiless damsel] hath thee in thrall!” He awakes to find himself on the same “cold hill’s side” on which he continues to wait while “palely loitering.”

I have since discovered that the Keats version of this ballad inspired many painters. A quick Google search on the title turned up quite a few paintings of the same name besides the two I have prints of in the dungeon.

The one on the right above is by Sir Frank Dicksee and I like this one best again, first off because the colors are more vibrant but also because the knight looks so awestruck by the beautiful and vibrant lady who has captured his heart. She seems powerful to me and more self sufficient than the lady in the painting to the left by John William Waterhouse who is pulling the knight down to the ground to join her. While the more somber tones of the Waterhouse painting may fit the mood of the verse better and there is still a very lovely seduction occurring, I think I prefer to think of the lady seducing the handsome knight from a stronger position. And yet the paintings do all compliment each other quite well

The final piece that I chose for the dungeon is a print of the “The Vigil” by John Pettie painted 1884. I have often joked that this one reminds me of Sylvester Stallone and if you could see the eyes up close I think you would see why. I don’t have a lot of added insight as to why I picked this one.. it just seemed right for the space. Handsome knight on his knees with his head high, in service but not lowly. Yup great image for my dungeon.