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Notes
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!See: Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Arthur's Tomb: The Last Meeting of Lancelot and Guinevere.
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,See: Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The Blue Closet.
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,See: Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Sir Galahad at the Ruined Chapel.
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’dSee: Dante Gabriel Rossetti. La Bella Mano.
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 outSee: Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The Blesse Damozel.
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 moonSee: Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Astarte Syriaca.
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.