Fateful journey: The Lady of Shalott by John William Waterhouse
In this seductively melancholic Victorian painting, a lovelorn woman sails to Camelot, the legendary castle of King Arthur. The journey, in the poem by Tennyson that it illustrates, will kill her. Was there ever a real Arthur, a real Camelot? The legends were elaborated by medieval writers as tales of chivalry, yet may refer to a British warrior king who fought invaders after the fall of the Roman Empire. This painting evokes the Arthurian age when Roman roads fell into ruin and Britain was a wasteland Illustration: Tate, London
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