Fogg Label Text: 32Q: 2130 19th Century , written 2014 Burne-Jones first represented images of the creation of the universe according to Genesis in a series of stained-glass windows that were part of his exploration of the concept of time. This celebrated version of the theme, in watercolor, is the culmination. The progressive days of the creation are personified by angels holding spheres in which each day’s act is represented, beginning with the separation of light and darkness and ending with Adam and Eve. As the series advances, each angel joins his successor, and the colors in the panels become warmer and richer as the universe unfolds. A gold flame hovers above the active angel’s head as the Creator’s life force animates him. The panels were originally placed in a massive frame designed by Burne-Jones, with a Latin inscription that translates: “And he changeth the times and the seasons.” A later owner remounted them in individual frames, and sadly, the Fourth Day was lost. Oscar Wilde, who admired the series when it was on display in London in 1877, wrote that the fourth angel bore “a crystal glow[ing] like a heated opal.”
The first full-scale aedicular or ‘altarpiece’ frame used by Burne-Jones was designed for his set of six watercolours, The Days of Creation, 1872-76. It derives from The story of Troy in its use of a single housing for several panels, but it is greatly simplified. Pillars, half-columns and predella paintings are replaced by outlined panels, and in place of the ornamental frieze there is a Latin inscription; only the decorative cornice and supporting brackets are retained. This is appears to be the only one of Burne-Jones’s frames to have been noticed in contemporary reviews [26], and it is thus particularly unfortunate that when this work was bought by the American collector Grenville L. Winthrop in 1934, the panels were reframed singly in plain gilt mouldings and the original setting lost [27]. This is especially poignant in view of Burne-Jones’s own plea for the integrity of the paintings within their frame as a single work of art. Each panel has a hand-written inscription on the back: ‘This picture is not complete by itself but is No. X of a series of six water colour pictures represent -ing the Days of Creation which are placed in a frame designed by the Painter, from which he desires they may not be removed.’ The Frame Blog
In 1885 Burne-Jones was invited and accepted the Presidency of the Society of Artist's in Birmingham, followed by a visit in October where he "carefully studied the conditions of art in his native town" Memorial Vol2 p 155 The Days of Creation as shown at this exhibition and 11 other works were exhibited at the Birmingham City art Gallery the same year.