Flemish tapestry
This piece shows an image of a faded king and queen playing chess in a garden, as hawkers go by with birds on their wrists (Wilde 118). Again, this attic piece reinforces a Renaissance or Gothic image in Dorian's apartment.
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This image is a loose interpretation of a tapestry like Dorian's. The Met describes the late 16th-century wool and silk tapestry as depicting hunters in a landscape. The tapestry is done " In a style referred to by Flemish weavers at the time as 'English fashion,' it was intended to hang between the cornice and the dado of a wood-paneled room." (Anonymous|Hunters in a Landscape| British, probably london|The Met)
Oscar Wilde
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Anonymous weaver, Met Museum collection piece
Wilde, Oscar. <em>The Picture of Dorian Gray</em>. Penguin, 2000.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/236691">The Metropolitan Museum of Art</a>
Penguin
---
The Met
Wilde's text/ 1891
Penguin/ 2000
ca. 1575–95
Hannah Phillips
Penguin
---
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
English
Text, still image
Satinwood bookcase
In Dorian's attic, the piece is simply described as being of satinwood and holding his old schoolbooks (Wilde 118). Basil references the piece as being "almost empty" when Dorian brings him up to see the portrait before killing him (Wilde 148).
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The Artstor database describes the piece as a desk and bookcase done in rosewood and satinwood, circa 1836-50. The piece is by J. & J. W. Meeks, and is of Gothic revival style. While Wilde's text does not go into detail regarding the piece, this image is a stand in for the type of piece that could be in Dorian's attic.
Oscar Wilde
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Artstor, Metropolitan Museum of Art, University of California San Diego
Wilde, Oscar. <em>The Picture of Dorian Gray</em>. Penguin, 2000.<br />ARTstor Slide Gallery, Data from:<span> University of California, San Diego</span>
Penguin
Artstor, University of San Diego
Wilde's text/ 1891
Penguin/2000
1836-50
Hannah Phillips
Penguin books
---
Artstor
English
Text, still image
Italian cassone
In the school room space, Dorian recognizes this piece of furniture as something he would hide himself inside as a child (a literal type of closeting in the text). It is described as having "fantastically painted panels" with "tarnished gilt mouldings" (Wilde 118) suggesting that it is fairly old and disused. Like much of Dorian's attic room furniture the piece seems to be more Renaissance or Gothic in style.
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The Met attributes this cassone to the workshop of mid 15th century Florentine artist Apollonio di Giovanni di Tomaso. It is described as being made of poplar wood, linen, polychromed and gilded gesso, and panels painted in tempera and gold. Though this may not be the exact piece referenced in Wilde's text, the painting and gilding of the piece are similar to what Dorian keeps in his schoolroom.
Oscar Wilde
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The Met, Apollonio di Giovanni di Tomaso
Wilde, Oscar. <em>The Picture of Dorian Gray</em>. Penguin, 2000.<br /><a href="http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/192693">The Metropolitan Museum of Art</a>
Penguin
The Met
Wilde's text/ 1891
Penguin/ 2000
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After 1461
Hannah Phillips
Penguin Books
---
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
English
Text, still image
Venetian coverlet
Dorian uses this piece to conceal his portrait in the novel. The piece is satin, purple with gold embroidery according to the text (Wilde 115), and was found by Dorian's grandfather in a convent near Bologna. When Dorian chooses to use the tapestry as a coverlet for his shameful portrait (an image linked to masked homosexuality in the text) he compares the coverlet to "a pall for the dead" (115).
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While this piece is photographed in black and white and there are little details regarding its specific details other than that it is silk and velvet, it serves as an interesting visual supplement to what Dorian's coverlet may have looked like.
Oscar Wilde
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Victoria and Albert Museum item, unknown maker
Wilde, Oscar. <em>The Picture of Dorian Gray</em>. Penguin, 2000.<br />---<br /><a href="http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O481909/coverlet/">Victoria and Albert Museum</a>
Penguin books
Wilde's text/ 1891
Penguin/2000
Hannah Phillips
Penguin Books
---
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
English
Text, still image
Chinese box
This box is hidden inside the triangular compartment of the Florentine cabinet. It is intensely detailed, black in color with "gold-dust lacquer, elaborately wrought, the sides patterned with curved waves, and the silken cords hung with round crystals and tasseled in plaited metal threads" (Wilde 174-75). Though the item is small, its beauty in detail and effects on Dorian mark its importance in the text. It contains a "green paste waxy in lustre" with a smell that is "curiously heavy and persistent" (Wilde 175), heavily implying that the box is used to keep Dorian's opium or hashish. This connection between the box and China furthers the Orientalist decor in Dorian's library.
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The Qing dynasty box in the image is, admittedly, not the same color scheme as the box in Wilde's text. However, its elaborate carvings seem to represent a similar pattern to Dorian's box, and its description as a late 18th-early 19th century treasure box could align with Dorian's box (Box with Landscape Scenes). The box's lacquer is carved with details like bats and the Buddhist "Eight Treasures," meant to represent success and longevity (Box with Landscape Scenes). Dorian's box seems to represent moral decline and addiction in the novel.
Oscar Wilde
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New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Extravagant Display: Chinese Art in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries," December 14, 2010–May 1, 2011
<span><br /><span>Wilde, Oscar. </span><em>The Picture of Dorian Gray</em><span>. Penguin, 2000.<br /><a href="http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/60903?sortBy=Relevance&amp;what=Boxes&amp;ft=chinese&amp;offset=20&amp;rpp=20&amp;pos=29">The Metropolitan Museum of Art</a><br /></span></span>
Penguin Books
The Met
Wilde's text/ 1891
Penguin text/ 2000
18th-early 19th century
Hannah Phillips
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Florentine Cabinet
Chinese Box: H. 5 3/4 in. (14.6 cm); W. 9 3/8 in. (23.8 cm); L. 9 3/8 in. (23.8 cm)/ red, green, black lacquer
English
Text, still image
Brazier
In the text, the brazier is pierced and made of copper. Dorian uses the brazier to perform a sort of mind clearing cleanse after burning Basil's clothing and bag, lighting "Algerian pastilles" in the brazier (Wilde 174). This sort of object is tied to Turkish culture, which extends the "far East" metaphor Dorian's library begins to convey in its secret Florentine cabinet and opium box.
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The image of depicts the base of an iron purification brazier, perhaps like the one Dorian uses in the text. It is inlaid with gold and silver, dates from the 15th-17th century, and originates from Tibet (not Turkey). According to the Met website, it was used for sacrificial burnings and purification rights. Though Dorian's brazier could be more like a hookah, in the text, it seems to serve a similar function as a purification vessel might—the object acts as a means for Dorian to cleanse himself after disposing of Basil's body.
Oscar Wilde
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The Metropolitan Museum of Art
<span><br /><span>Wilde, Oscar. </span><em>The Picture of Dorian Gray</em><span>. Penguin, 2000.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/39429">The Metropolitan Museum of Art</a><br /></span></span>
Penguin
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The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Wilde's text/1891
Penguin text/ 2000
Brazier/ 15th-17th Century
Hannah Phillips
Penguin Books/ The Met
English
Text, still image
Florentine Cabinet
<p>This piece seems to appear or be noted in the text after Dorian's corruption and the portrait changes and his"corrupted" figure/lifestyle emerges. After murdering Basil, Dorian burns his body in the library and turns to the cabinet for comfort. This is where he keeps his opium container, inside a hidden "triangular drawer" (Wilde 174). The secrecy of the cabinet calls to mind the "secret psychological life" that appear linked in wardrobes, desks, and chests in Bachelard's <em>Poetics of Space (78). </em>Dorian's cabinet is placed between the library's two windows, signifiers of the outside world, and is made of ebony, and "inlaid with ivory and blue lapis" (Wilde 174) indicating an Oriental style despite its Italian background. The piece has the ability, in Dorian's eyes, to "fascinate and make afraid" (Wilde 174).<br />---<br />Though the Victoria and Albert Museum did not have the original cabinet itself on display (from Gore House in London), this photograph taken in 1853 by Charles Thurston Thompson depicts an Italian cabinet with "pietra dura" (Italian cabinet in pietra). The cabinet has elaborate designs carved in wood with metal details, in tiny pictures of what appear to be landscape scenes. The photograph contains some text, describing a "Cabinet or coffer, in pietra dura. Italian, date about 1650." According to <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/pietra-dura">Britannica.com</a>, pietra dura or "hard stone" in Italian, is a type of mosiac art that "flourished in the late 16th and 17th centuries," using cut shapes of colored stone that was favored in creating tables and small wall panels.</p>
Oscar Wilde
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Charles Thurston Thompson
<div style="text-align:left;"><em>The Picture of Dorian Gray<br /><br /></em><a href="http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1268927/italian-cabinet-in-pietra-dura-photograph-thompson-charles-thurston/">Victoria and Albert Museum</a></div>
Penguin Books
Victoria and Albert Museum
Wilde's text/ 1891
Penguin/2000
1853 (photograph)/ ca. 1650 (cabinet)
Hannah Phillips
English
Text
Couch
The piece is described as "luxuriously-cushioned," facing the screen that hides the portrait while it is still kept in the library (Wilde 92). Though not tied to any specific schools of design, the couch seems to represent an image of leisure for the aesthete. Dorian uses it as a spot to fling himself down after lighting a cigarette (Wilde 92) and as a vantage point to think about the "mask of his shame" and the altered portrait with "a feeling of almost scientific interest"(Wilde 93).
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The black and white image shows an English settee of an unknown date and maker. The upholstery is red velvet and the wood is gilded.
Oscar Wilde
<em>The Picture of Dorian Gray<br /><br /></em>The Victoria and Albert Museum: http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O372005/settee/
Penguin Books
Victoria and Albert Museum
Wilde's text/1891
Penguin/2000
Hannah Phillips
Penguin Books
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London 2017.
English
Text
Blue Dragon Bowl
Filled with "sulphur-yellow roses" in the text (Wilde 92). This piece seems to be one of the more aesthetic pieces in Dorian's home. It seems to correspond with aestheticism's interest in Eastern art and design, blue and white porcelain, and yellow color (though the flowers are not sunflowers, the roses are a proper color for an aesthete).
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The Victoria and Albert Museum database describes the dragon bowl in the image as porcelain, "painted in underglaze blue with four panels containing alternately a dragon chasing a pearl and a phoenix among clouds; on the bottom inside a phoenix among clouds in a four-lobed medallion." This piece is perhaps a match for what Dorian's bowl would have looked like, as it matches the color criteria and was made in Jingdezhen, China.
Oscar Wilde
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Unkown maker
<em>The Picture of Dorian Gray<br />-----<br /><br /></em>Victoria and Albert Museum collection: http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O437808/bowl-unknown/
Penguin Books
Wilde's text/ 1891
Penguin/ 2000
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Porcelain Bowl/ early 18th century
Hannah Phillips
Penguin Books
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Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Text and still image
Table
Not much is attributed to the table, other than that it is "small" and "round," close to a window in the library. When Dorian sits at the table in Chapter 8, the day is described as "exquisite" with "warm air" that seems to be "laden with spices"(Wilde 92). This is where Dorian sits himself to enjoy the morning and his breakfast the day after placing a screen in front of the portrait.
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The image is of a Mysore rosewood and ivory table, possibly made in 1902 (a bit after Dorian Gray was published). According to the Victoria and Albert Museum, the piece was made by M. Yusuf Ali and Sons. Though the table was manufactured after Wilde's text came out, this piece reflects a bit of the oriental feeling evoked in the first library scene's description.
Oscar Wilde, M. Yusuf Ali and Sons
<em>The Picture of Dorian Gray<br /></em><a href="http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O238527/table-table/">The Victoria and Albert Museum</a><em><br /></em>
Penguin Books, Victoria and Albert Museum
Widle's text/ 1891
Penguin/ 2000
1898-1905, ca. 1902
Hannah Phillips
Penguin Books
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London 2017.
English
Text