Perseus1.0025_Burne-Jones

Originally sprung from 28 illustrations for William Morris' poem "The Doom of King Acrisius" (Perseus1.0023_Morris),Burne-Jones' painting cycle was intended as mural decoration for the music room at 4 Carlton Gardens, London, for Arthur Balfour, but never completed beyond eight core oil-on-canvas works. These are curated at the Stuttgart Staatsgalerie, inv. no's 3103-110. Watercolors of the entire scheme, including three not in the painted (o-o-c) series — "The Birth of Pegasus and Chrysaor (Death of Medusa I)", "Atlas Turned to Stone," and "The Court of Phineas" — are dated to 1875 and listed at Tate Gallery, London, no. 3457. A series of sketches for ten subjects (not including "The Court of Phineas") is curated at the Southampton Art Gallery, England.

Burne-Jones conceived and painted part of the Perseus Cycle in response to William Morris’ epic poem, “The Doom of Acrisius”. It seems important to note that Burne-Jones is primarily illustrating Morris’ poem and not so much recreating the classical myth per se.