There is a discussion going on at Riddled about The Eve of St. Agnes and the unsettling fact that Full on this casement shone the wintry moon And threw warm gules on Madeline's fair breast. Madeline was obviously wearing far fewer clothes than her depiction here (by Edward H. Wehnert, 1856), and the casement as shown is hardly high and triple-arched. It also fails to show that the casement is set with stained glass, which is important because that's where the gules comes from—moonlight passing through the window projecting red lozenges on the sleepy beauty's bare body. I just wanted to write that, and it's my blog.
Update: An additional illustration
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| Caspar David Friedrich, Landschaft mit Mondregenbogen, 1808 or 1810. From de.academic.ru (whatever that is). |
