When Mausolus of Caria died in 350 BC, his wife Artemisia II did not simply mourn him. After his cremation, she mixed his ashes into her daily drinks, making herself into a living tomb, carrying him inside her as she carried on ruling. And rule she did, under enormous pressure. Cities and islands across her domain refused to accept a female successor and revolted. Artemisia wore a crown in the storm, drawing on strategic brilliance to suppress the uprisings and hold her power together until her own death two years later.
The widow's extraordinary grief and turbulent reign have inspired artists for centuries. At the heart of the wrapping paper collage "A Crown in the Storm" is Guido Reni's "Portrait of a Woman" (1638-1639), a Baroque masterpiece depicting Artemisia in a turban, cradling a Lapis Lazuli bowl containing her husband's remains. Her gaze tilts upward, torn between devotion and anguish, and it sets the emotional tone for the entire composition. Around her, further fragments of Baroque portraiture deepen the drama, while glimpses of Paul Sandby's "The River Severn at Shrewsbury" (1770) introduce a sense of turbulent, flowing time. Botanical elements, geometric shapes and layered textures complete the collage, echoing the tension between order and grief that defined Artemisia's reign.
Printed on premium paper designed to survive the unwrapping and be kept, "A Crown in the Storm" gives your gift two layers: what is inside, and the story wrapped around it.Because the way you wrap something says as much as what is inside.
When Mausolus of Caria died in 350 BC, his wife Artemisia II did not simply mourn him. After his cremation, she mixed his ashes into her daily drinks, making herself into a living tomb, carrying him inside her as she carried on ruling. And rule she did, under enormous pressure. Cities and islands across her domain refused to accept a female successor and revolted. Artemisia wore a crown in the storm, drawing on strategic brilliance to suppress the uprisings and hold her power together until her own death two years later.
The widow's extraordinary grief and turbulent reign have inspired artists for centuries. At the heart of the wrapping paper collage "A Crown in the Storm" is Guido Reni's "Portrait of a Woman" (1638-1639), a Baroque masterpiece depicting Artemisia in a turban, cradling a Lapis Lazuli bowl containing her husband's remains. Her gaze tilts upward, torn between devotion and anguish, and it sets the emotional tone for the entire composition. Around her, further fragments of Baroque portraiture deepen the drama, while glimpses of Paul Sandby's "The River Severn at Shrewsbury" (1770) introduce a sense of turbulent, flowing time. Botanical elements, geometric shapes and layered textures complete the collage, echoing the tension between order and grief that defined Artemisia's reign.
Printed on premium paper designed to survive the unwrapping and be kept, "A Crown in the Storm" gives your gift two layers: what is inside, and the story wrapped around it.Because the way you wrap something says as much as what is inside.