May Morning

‘May Morning on Magdalen Tower’ 1890, by Holman Hunt

Hunt attended the May Morning ceremony and made initial observations about it in 1888. The Walker Art Gallery has a watercolour study of the details of the tower, which Hunt studied for several weeks. For the figures in the painting he chose boys from Magdalen College but also used the choir of Westminster Abbey. Not only did Hunt have problems with the choice of models but he also realised that the ceremony was not popular with people outside the Magdalen College, as he confessed in a letter to his wife after his second stay in Oxford in December 1888. The vivid and individual expressions of all the figures suggest that they were all modelled from the choir as well as members of the College. The youth of the boys reflects the fertility and blossoming of nature during May. The young boy looking directly out at us is holding a lily, the symbol for St Mary the Virgin and St Mary Magdalen to whom the College was dedicated.

[National Museums Liverpool]

Te Deum Patrem colimus,

Te Laudibus prosequimus,

qui corpus cibo reficis,

coelesti mentem gratia.

Te adoramus, O Jesu,

Te, Fili unigenite,

Te, qui non dedignatus es

subire claustra Virginis.

          

Actus in crucem, factus est

irato Deo victima

per te, Salvator unice

vitae spes nobis rediit.

                    

Tibi, aeterne Spiritus

cuius afflatu peperit

infantem Deum Maria,

aeternum benedicimus.

                              

Triune Deus, hominum

salutis auctor optime,

immensum hoc mysterium

orante lingua canimus.

[Dr Nathaniel Ingelo and Benjamin Rogers, Hymnus Eucharisticus]

Back in 2013, Auntie did the honours here.