Jimmy Page Has Loaned Stunning Pre-Raphaelite Tapestries To Tate Britain’s Edward Burne-Jones Exhibition

Jimmy Page, the 74-year-old guitarist extraordinaire, is also a self-proclaimed lover of all things Pre-Raphaelite, and has just loaned two stunning tapestries to the Tate Britain for their new Edward Burne-Jones exhibition which has officially opened today.

As the Arizona Daily Star reports, these gorgeous tapestries depict scenes from the legend of King Arthur and the Holy Grail, and Page explained that he was extremely fortunate to have picked up the tapestries by Burne-Jones at Sotheby’s when he did, noting that he never would have believed such a thing was possible until it actually happened.

“I managed to purchase them from Sotheby’s when they came up for sale. They’re the most extraordinary pieces and never in my wildest dreams, in those days of actually acquiring them, did I ever think they would come to the Tate.”

The two tapestries date back to 1890 and 1894 and are known as The Attainment: The Vision of the Holy Grail to Sir Galahad, Sir Bors and Sir Perceval and The Arming and Departure of the Knights of the Round Table on the Quest for the Holy Grail.

Jimmy Page has stated that when he was at university, the ethereal art and style of Edward Burne-Jones was a huge influence on him as a young man and that he had originally attended art school in the hopes of learning more about oil painting, something which was apparently out of vogue by the time he came of age, with acrylics being favored instead.

“Burne-Jones is an artist that I had always been extremely influenced by in my youth when I was at Art College. I went to Art College to try and learn the techniques of oil painting but by the time I went into art college, it was all into acrylics and they said no one could teach you anything to do with glazing and these techniques, but I stayed on there. I enjoyed it.”

Led Zeppelin star Jimmy Page lends tapestries to Tate's new Edward Burne-Jones exhibition https://t.co/kYdt07vW3n pic.twitter.com/parifOZ6z4

— tweetonlondon (@tweetonlondon) October 22, 2018

As an avid lover of Edward Burne-Jones and his Pre-Raphaelite art, Jimmy Page was able to thoroughly examine all of the different pieces that the Tate Britain chose for their new exhibition before the official opening today, and according to Tate curator Alison Smith, Page was “particularly impressed by the way it was lit and the colors.”

This Tate Britain exhibition has been three years in the making as Smith slowly and lovingly pieced together all of the best Burne-Jones material, and it is her belief that visitors will be entranced as soon as they set eyes on the Pre-Raphaelite art, explaining, “When people come to this show they’ll get the Burne-Jones bug.”

The last time the Tate had an exhibition dedicated to Edward Burne-Jones was back in 1933, and Jimmy Page has understood the great significance of this new exhibition by lending tapestries that will help to illustrate to the public what a master of art this late-era Pre-Raphaelite was.