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            Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti is an English poet, painter and translator. He was born to a family of an Italian political immigrant Gabriel Rossetti, poet, scholar and revolutionary. There were three more children in the family: Maria (1827-76) who became an Anglican nun and author of a literary commentary A Shadow of Dante; William Michael (1829-1919), critic, civil servant and Pre-Raphaelite historian, and Christina Georgina (1830-94), English poet. The household was artistic and more Italian than English.
            Rossetti began his training in 1841 in Sass’s Drawing School; in 1846 he was accepted by the Royal Academy Antique School in London. Then he persuaded Ford Madox Brown to tutor him, but this was short-lived. In 1848, he became a co-founder (with William Holman Hunt and John Millais) of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood; the painters of the trend turned away from neo-classicism and its models of Greco-Roman antiquity and the High Renaissance, and revived interest in the Middle Ages, especially in Gothic art.
            Most of Rossetti’s work was produced in the spirit of this movement, despite his leaving it at an early date. Many of his themes were taken from the Old and New Testament, Dante, or the medieval legends about the King Arthur and his knights, Malory's Morte d’Arthur in particular, and treated with strong overtones of symbolism.
            In 1850, he met Elisabeth Siddal, who sat for many of his pictures: The First Anniversary of the Death of Beatrice: Dante Drawing the Angel (1853), Dante's Vision of Rachel and Leah (1855), Beata Beatrix (1864-1870) and for some by Hunt and Millais’s Ophelia, and whom he married in 1860 after a fraught and prolonged courtship. Already an invalid, she died in 1862 from an overdose of laudanum. Although it was an accident, the thought that his wife had committed suicide haunted Rossetti for the rest of his life.
            He met Ruskin in 1854. Largely because of Ruskin, Rossetti was gaining a reputation as the ‘leader’ of the Pre-Raphaelites. He turned more and more in the direction of poetic painting, which he emphasized by attaching sonnets to the frames of his pictures. In 1861, The Early Italian Poets was published, translations from 60 poets such as Dante and Cavalcanti. Rossetti's Poems appeared in 1870. His wife’s death, however affected him deeply and his work took a taint of pessimism and morbidity. Dante's Dream at the Time of the Death of Beatrice (1871), Proserpine (1874). He fell into depression and attempted suicide in 1872. Nevertheless, Balladsand Sonnets with the sonnet sequence The House of Life and The King’s Tragedy appeared in 1881. In his later years Rossetti concentrated on studies of single, allegorical female figures: Monna Vanna (1866), Mariana (1870), La Ghirlandata (18730, The Day Dream (1880).
 “At odds with Victorian morality, his work is lush, erotic and medieval, romantic in spirit, and of abiding interest and fascination.”
            Rossetti died on 9 April, Easter Sunday, 1882, of Bright’s disease.

The Girlhood of Mary Virgin. The picture overflows with symbolism: the lily, an emblem of purity and also an attribute of the Angel Gabriel. The entwined palm and thorn in the foreground foretell the Passion. Behind the balcony is St. Joachim, Mary’s father, tending the wine, a traditional symbol of Christ.
See: Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The Girlhood of Mary Virgin.

Found. The subject, inspired by William Bell Scott’s poem ‘Rosabell’, later re-titled ‘Maryanne’, is that of a prostitute recognized by her former fiancé, a young farmer. She cowers beside the wall of a graveyard, symbolizing death and damnation.
See: Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Found.

Arthur’s Tomb: The Last Meeting of Launcelot and Guinevere. Sir Lancelot, a knight of King Arthur, and Guinevere, the wife of the king, are two of the main characters of the medieval legends about King Arthur and his knights. The subject was inspired by Malory’s ‘Morte d’Arthur’: after the death of Arthur the Queen retired to a nunnery and rejected Lancelot. Rossetti invented another episode: the repentant Queen repulses Launcelot’s attempt to kiss her over late husband's tomb. The apple tree and the snake, creeping out of the grass are clear references to the biblical Fall of Man. This picture inspired the poem of the same title by William Morris:

Across my husband's head, fair Launcelot!
   Fair serpent mark’d with V upon the head!
This thing we did while yet he was alive,
   Why not, O twisting Knight, Now he is dead?

The Blue Closet. The subject has no apparent literary source; two women play upon a strange medieval instrument, which combines clavichord, carillon and harp. Behind the musicians stand two singers. The painting inspired Morris’s poem of the same name, but, as Rossetti remarked, ‘The poems were the result of the pictures, but don’t at all tally to any purpose with them though beautiful in themselves.’

Lady Alice, Lady Louise,
Between the wash of the tumbling seas
We are ready to sing, if so ye please;
So lay your long hands on the keys;
Sing, Laudate pueri.
                        (From ‘The Blue Closet’, William Morris)

The Tune of Seven Towers. The subject was invented by Rossetti himself; a king listens to the music, played by his queen. The medievalism of the picture is characteristic of Pre-Raphaelists.
See: Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The Tune of Seven Towers.

The Seed of David. The subject of the picture is adoration of baby Christ by both shepherds and kings. The symbolism is based on David’s dual identities of shepherd and king. The infant Jesus is worshiped by both kings and shepherds.
See: Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The Seed of David.

Sir Galahad at the Ruined Chapel. Sir Galahad is one of the knights of medieval legends about King Arthur and his Knights.

Between dark stems the forest glows,
I hear a noise of Hymns:
Then by some secret shrine I ride;
I hear a voice but none are there;
The stalls are void, the doors are wide,
The tapers burning fair.
Fair gleams the snowy altar-cloth,
The silver vessels sparkle clean,
The shrill bell rings, the censer swings,
And solemn chaunts resound between.
        (From ‘Sir Galahad’, Alfred Tennyson).

‘Bocca Baciata’ is a quotation from the 14-th century Italian poet and writer Giovanni Boccacio, which Rossetti inscribed on the back of the painting; in full it reads: “The mouth that has been kissed loses not its freshness; still it renews itself even as does  the moon.’ The model was Fanny Cornforth, born Sarah Cox in 1824.
See: Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Bocca Baciata.

Maria Leathart (1840 - ? ), the wife of James Leathart, a lead manufacturer, the Secretary of the Government School of Design; he built up a fine collection of pre-Raphaelite paintings.
See: Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Portrait of Maria Leathart.

How Sir Galahad, Sir Bors and Sir Percival were Fed with the Sanc Grael…  All are the knights from the medieval legends about King Arthur and his knights. The scene  shows the pilgrims receiving the Eucharist in the Holy vessel from an angel who stands behind the miraculous lily. Behind them stand red-winged angels and to the left is the Holy Spirit, which associated with the appearance of the Sanc Grael, in the form of a dove carrying a golden censer in its beak.
See: Dante Gabriel Rossetti. How Sir Galahad, Sir Bors and Sir Percival Were Fed with the Sanc Grael; but Sir Percival's Sister Died by the Way.

Venus Verticordia. The model for the goddess was Alexa Wilding. The goddess is depicted with a Cupid’s arrow, and the apple, which had been awarded to her by Paris for her beauty. About the goddess see also here.
See: Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Venus Verticordia.

The Blue Bower is Rossetti’s last major portrait of Fanny Cornforth.
See: Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The Blue Bower.

The Beloved, also called The Bride, the subject is taken from the Old Testament ‘The Song of Solomon’ and illustrates the lines ‘She shall be brought unto the King in raiment of needlework; the virgins that be her fellows shall bear her company’. The model was Marie Ford.
See: Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The Beloved.

Monna Vanna is clearly based on 16th-century Venetian prototypes of Mary Magdalenes and Venuses, and Rossetti himself described it as Venetian, the original title being ‘Venus Veneta’. It was painted from Alexa Wilding.
See: Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Monna Vanna.

Regina Cordium, which means Queen of Hearts, a portrait of Alexa Wilding.
See: Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Regina Cordium.

Sibylla Palmifera was painted with the idea of contrasting with the picture of Lady Lilith, the legendary first wife of Adam and a personification of lust in Jewish folklore. Sibylla Palmifera represented ‘Soul’s Beauty’, the title of a sonnet he wrote to accompany the painting. The modestly dressed Sibylla sits in a temple surrounded by the emblems of Love, Death and Mystery, the Cupid, the skull and the sphinx. In contrast, Lilith admires herself in a mirror, the attribute of vanity. The initial contrast between the pictures, posed by the sensuous Fanny Cornforth and demure Alexa Wilding respectively, was very marked, but in 1872-3 Rossetti replaced Fanny’s head with the head of Alexa at the request of a buyer, and destroyed the original concept.
See: Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Sibylla Palmifera.

Reverie is one of the first of many subsequent portraits of Jane Morris, neé Burden, the wife of another pre-Raphaelite painter, William Morris (1834-96), and Rossetti’s final muse.
See: Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Reverie.

Water Willow. This small and personal picture of Jane Morris was painted in 1871 during Morris’s absence in Iceland, at the height of her love affair with Rossetti.
See: Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Water Willow.

Proserpine, see her legend here. The model for Proserpine was Jane Morris. By depicting her as this character, Rossetti hinted at her situation of a woman trapped in marriage, which she disliked.
See: Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Proserpine.

La Bella Mano, The Beautiful Hand,

In royal wise ring-girt and bracelet-spann’d
A flower of Venus’ own virginity,
Go shine among thy sisterly sweet band;
In maiden-minded converse delicately
Evermore white and soft; until thou be,
O hand! heart-handsel’d in a lover’s hand.
        (From ‘La Bella Mano’, Dante Gabriel Rossetti)

The Blessed Damozel. Rossetti used his most famous poem as the inspiration for this painting 25 years later after publishing it. The subject of the poem is platonic love:

The blessed damozel leaned out
From the gold bar of Heaven;
Her eyes were deeper than the depth
Of waters stilled at even;
She had three lilies in her hand,
And the stars in her hair were seven.
        (From ‘The Blessed Damozel’, Dante Gabriel Rossetti’)

Astarte Syriaca. Astarte was the goddess of fertility and love in ancient Eastern religions and was particularly important to the Phoenicians. Jane Morris sat for Astarte.

Mystery; lo! betwixt the sun and moon
Astarte of the Syrians: Venus Queen
Ere Aphrodite was. In silver sheen
Her twofold girdle clasps the infinite boon
Of bliss whereof the heaven and earth commune:
And from her neck’s inclining flower-stem lean
Love-freighted lips and absolute eyes that wean
The pulse of hearts to the spheres’ dominant tune.
        (From ‘Astarte Syriaca”, Dante Gabriel Rossetti)

Bibliography:
Victorian Painting. by Christopher Wood. Bulfinch Press. 1999.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti by Russell Ash. Harry N Abrams, 1995.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Poet and Painter by Eben E. Bass. Peter Lang Publishing, 1990.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti by Julian Treuherz, Liz Prettejohn, Edwin Becker. Thames & Hudson, 2003.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti by Alicia Craig Faxon. Abbeville Press, 1994.
Dear Mr Rossetti: The Letters of Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Hall Caine 1878-1881 by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Vivien Allen, Hall Caine. Sheffield Academic Pr, 2000.
Tate British Artists: Dante Gabriel Rossetti (Tate British Artists) by Lisa Tickner. Tate, 2004.