KEITH CHRSITIANSEN: This luminous fantasy, painted by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, was inspired by the melancholic refrain of an old French song: "Alas, I know a love song, / Sad or happy, each in turn.” Curator Katharine Baetjer:

KATHARINE BAETJER: “The Love Song,” which is the title we give this picture, was always called by Burne-Jones by its French title, “Chant d'Amour.” Flowers emblematic of bitterness and love form a border in the foreground, while the figures are seductive in their mutual indifference. The wall affords a structure for the composition, which is a brilliant arrangement of intersecting diagonals, horizontals and verticals. The figures cling to the foreground rather like a stained-glass window. Each silhouette is varied and interesting.

KEITH CHRSITIANSEN: Burne-Jones freely integrates references to different historical periods.

KATHARINE BAETJER: So that in the background there's a medieval town and in the foreground there's a figure wearing a medieval suit of armor. Then the figure at the right, who has her hand on the bellows, is wearing what I can only describe as a quasi-Classical drapery, while the woman in the middle could be wearing clothes of practically any epoch, from medieval to 19th century.

KEITH CHRSITIANSEN: Burne-Jones was connected with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a group of British artists active in the mid-nineteenth century, who sought to return painting to the purity and moral vision they imagined in art prior to the time of Raphael. This work’s arcane subject and symbolism, its exhaustive detail, and its decorative beauty are all characteristic of the Pre-Raphaelite style.