What was Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s role in decorating the Oxford Union debating chamber?

In 1857, Dante Gabriel Rossetti spearheaded an ambitious project to decorate the Oxford Union debating chamber with a series of mural paintings.1

Rossetti led a group of collaborators, including Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris, in creating these murals, which depicted scenes from Arthurian legend based on Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte Darthur. Rossetti was instrumental in this effort, even persuading Morris to abandon architecture for painting so that he could join the group of friends working on the walls.12

Although the project ultimately failed due to the artists' lack of technical knowledge and experience with mural painting, the enterprise was historically significant. It served as a catalyst for expanding the scope of art to include the crafts and helped foster the collaborative spirit that would later lead to the founding of Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Company.12