'An allegorical dream vision, a pilgrim’s quest for perfect love' that's one of the National Trust's finest treasures

We're taking a look at nine of the greatest objects on display in the National Trust's properties across Britain — starting with a painting at Wallington in Northumberland.

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Pastel, black chalk and watercolour, over an earlier cartoon in pencil, on paper, Idleness and the Pilgrim of Love by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones (Birmingham 1833 - London 1898), 1876. There is a frame or border drawn to enclose the composition. The male figure of the Pilgrim, dressed in blue, approaches a doorway from the left, against a landscape of boulders, in which stands the female figure of Idleness, holding her hand out, ready to receive him. In front of the building, the gate to the walled garden, below to her right, is a rectangular pool of water. This is an illustration from the story, translated from the french poem by Guillaume de Lorris (d. 1230) and completed by Jean de Meun, by Chaucer of The Garden of Idleness in The Romaunt of the Rose (Romance of the Rose).
Pastel, black chalk and watercolour, over an earlier cartoon in pencil, on paper, Idleness and the Pilgrim of Love by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones (Birmingham 1833 - London 1898), 1876. There is a frame or border drawn to enclose the composition. The male figure of the Pilgrim, dressed in blue, approaches a doorway from the left, against a landscape of boulders, in which stands the female figure of Idleness, holding her hand out, ready to receive him. In front of the building, the gate to the walled garden, below to her right, is a rectangular pool of water. This is an illustration from the story, translated from the french poem by Guillaume de Lorris (d. 1230) and completed by Jean de Meun, by Chaucer of The Garden of Idleness in The Romaunt of the Rose (Romance of the Rose).
(Image credit: © National Trust / Donald Bovill & Susan McCormack)

The National Trust’s collections are not only vast, but contain objects of astonishing beauty, quality and human interest.

To coincide with the Trust’s 125 anniversary, we asked nine senior curators — including national experts in painting and sculpture, textiles, furniture and decorative arts — to choose their favourite object from among those in their care.

Idleness and the Pilgrim of Love by Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, about 1872–76, at Wallington, Northumberland

Chosen by Sally-Anne Huxtable, head curator

Burne-Jones was deeply inspired by Roman de la Rose, a 13th-century French poem of courtly love by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun, and Chaucer’s 14th-century translation of it, The Romaunt of the Rose. The poem is an allegorical dream vision, a pilgrim’s quest for perfect love, which he eventually achieves in the form of a woman in the form of a rose bush inside the Garden of Desire.

Here, in this pastel and watercolour, executed over an earlier cartoon in pencil, the pilgrim is tested by Idleness in the form of another beautiful woman. Themes of quest and idealised love were ones to which the artist returned time and again through different media, including stained glass, tiles, painting, murals, tapestry and embroidery.

www.nationaltrust.org.uk/wallington

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READ MORE: A week-by-week guide to what to see at the National Trust's properties in 2020

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The rope bridge of your dreams? Carrick a Rede, County Antrim
(Image credit: Getty Images/National Geographic)
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Country Life is unlike any other magazine: the only glossy weekly on the newsstand and the only magazine that has been guest-edited by His Majesty The King not once, but twice. It is a celebration of modern rural life and all its diverse joys and pleasures — that was first published in Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee year. Our eclectic mixture of witty and informative content — from the most up-to-date property news and commentary and a coveted glimpse inside some of the UK's best houses and gardens, to gardening, the arts and interior design, written by experts in their field — still cannot be found in print or online, anywhere else.