Page:Recollections of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1904).djvu/49

 firm Rossetti made numerous designs for their stained glass department, and what always struck me in these conceptions of his was, that they worked up as finely into pictures as stained glass which, as far as my observation goes, is rarely the case in the majority of glass designers' inventions. For instance, his series of six illustrations for the story of St. George and the Dragon,58 and the very fine way in which he has treated the Parable of the Vineyard,59 rendered it unnecessary to make any alterations in them when some years later they were turned into important pictures.60

In both series of designs—for St. George and the Dragon and the Parable of the Vineyard—Rossetti made great use of his friends, and introduced their heads freely into his conceptions.61 In one of the compartments of the Parable he has William Morris, who is generally the strong, wicked man of the lot, concealed by a door, in the act of dropping a big stone on the head of the Lord of the Vineyard's collector who has called for the vintage dues.62 In the last of the set he re-appears in a very dejected state, and in the company of the rest of the bad husbandmen,63 amongst whom are to be seen Algernon Charles Swinburne and Ernest Gambart,64 the then great picture dealer, all wobegone and roped together, on their way to receive condign punishment. Edward Burne-Jones, by reason of his gentle disposition and refined face, was the "good boy" of Rossetti's designs. Howell figures twice in the Saint D