The picture deals with a central Rossettian subject, the conflict (and relation) between sacred and profane love, and the structures of guilt that arise from it. DGR's work exhibits a continuous exploration of the topic, which is an especially urgent one in all of its many Judaeo-Christian forms.
This is the first of the famous series of Arthurian watercolours that DGR executed in the 1850s. Two complete versions of this picture exist: one, Correspondence
The picture references events detailed in Book XXI of Malory's Morte d'Arthur
The Byrth, Lyf, and Actes of King
Arthur
DGR: An Illustrated MemorialA Catalogue
Raisonné
The Pre–Raphaelites , Tate 1984
Dante Gabriel Rossetti