Dante Gabriel Rossetti - A leading light in the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
6, Helen of Troy.
Completed in 1863 and housed in the Hamburger Kunsthalle, this portrait of the mythical
Spartan queen was once again posed for by Fanny Cornforth, a principal inspiration for
many of Rossetti’s sensuous figures.
The subject of the canvas was most likely inspired by Rossetti’s friend William Morris,
who was working on a series of embroideries titled ‘Good Women’, loosely based on
Geoffrey Chaucer’s poetical work of the same name.
Morris’ embroideries feature full-length figures, whereas Rossetti’s painting is
a shoulder length portrait of Helen, “the destroyer of ships, the destroyer of men,
the destroyer of cities”, as the artist inscribed from a Greek play on the back of
the canvas.
In the background of the image Troy can be seen burning as indistinct rectangular shapes,
lit up by flames, whilst the beauty of Helen and her sumptuous robe, of a rich and similar
hue to her own hair, are the pivotal features of the composition.
7, Venus Verticordia.
This 1868 canvas depicts the goddess of love, standing surrounded by a garden of roses.
The title, ‘Venus Changer of the Heart’ alludes to the sensuous theme of seduction
and love.
Venus handles Cupid’s arrow, as well as the apple, which according to myth was awarded
to her by Paris, when judged as the fairest of all the goddesses.
Venus is complemented with honeysuckle, red roses, butterflies and a golden halo.
The canvas was purchased by John Mitchell of Bradford in 1868 and, although it is only
one of two semi-nude paintings by Rossetti, the work offended Ruskin, who complained that
it was ‘coarse’.
The model was Alexa Wilding, who for posed for more of Rossetti’s finished works than
any other of his more well known models.
Comparatively little is known about Wilding, which is perhaps partly due to the lack of
romantic or sexual connection that separates Rossetti’s relationships with his other
muses.
Her working-class family originated in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, and she was the daughter of a
piano-maker.
Wilding was first seen by Rossetti one evening in the Strand in 1865 and he was immediately
impressed by her beauty.
She agreed to sit for him the following day, but failed to arrive as planned.
It is possible that she was put off by the morally dubious reputation of models at that
time.
Weeks went by and Rossetti had given up the idea of the painting he had in mind, so important
did he consider the look of this specific model, when he spotted her again in the street.
He jumped from the hackney cab he was in and persuaded her to be led straight back to his
studio.
He paid her a weekly fee to sit for him exclusively, afraid that other artists might also employ
her.
After Rossetti’s death in 1882, Wilding, though not particularly financially well off,
was said to have travelled regularly to place a wreath on the artist’s grave in Birchington-on-Sea.
8, The Beloved.
Housed in Tate Britain, this 1865 canvas illustrates the Bible’s Song of Solomon, with two passages
inscribed on the picture’s gilded frame: ‘My beloved is mine and I am his’ (2:16)
and ‘Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine’
(1:2).
In the image, the bride moves back her veil, whilst attended by four virginal bridesmaids
and an African page.
The skin tones and hair colouring of all the other subjects contrast strikingly with the
red hair and pale skin of the bride.
It is likely that this colour contrast, carefully painted as a frame to the bride’s features,
was influenced by Édouard Manet’s controversial painting Olympia, first exhibited in 1865,
which features a reclining nude woman with lucent white skin and a black servant.
Rossetti made a visit to Manet while working on The Beloved and the canvases were both
completed in the same year.
Interestingly, Rossetti arranged the bride in a head-dress which is distinctly recognisable
as Peruvian and in a Japanese gown.
Again, this abundance of exotic fabric frames the face of the bride, dominant in the centre
of the canvas, with its western-European features.
Rossetti ostensibly finished this oil painting in 1866, but continued to make changes to
the canvas throughout his life.
9, Beata Beatrix.
Completed in 1870 and housed in Tate Britain, this famous oil painting depicts Beatrice
Portinari from Dante Aligiheri’s poem La Vita nuova at the moment of her death.
The painting’s title in English translates as ‘Blessed Beatrice’.
Rossetti modelled Beatrice after his deceased wife and frequent model, Elizabeth Siddal,
who had died eight years before in 1862.
The painting was created from the numerous drawings that Rossetti had made of Siddal
during their time together.
Several of Siddal’s friends found the painting to bear little resemblance to the drawings
of her — the facial features were harder and the neck was reportedly out of proportion.
In the background, far off in the distance, we can glimpse the deserted streets of Florence
and the Ponte Vecchio and Duomo, whilst Dante stands on the right, facing the Angel of Love
on the left.
Beatrice appears to be locked in a trance, next to a sundial, displaying the time of
nine o’clock, the hour at which she died on 9 June 1290.
The symbolism of a red dove, a messenger of love, refers to Rossetti’s love for Siddal,
with the white poppy dropping from the bird’s beak representing laudanum and the means of
his wife’s death.
In an 1873 letter to his friend William Morris, Rossetti said he intended the painting “not
as a representation of the incident of the death of Beatrice, but as an ideal of the
subject, symbolised by a trance or sudden spiritual transfiguration.”
Rossetti had been commissioned by William Graham to make a replica of Beata Beatrix,
dated 1872, which is almost the same size as the original, though it features a predella,
depicting Dante Alighieri and Beatrice meeting in paradise with a frame designed by Rossetti.
It was given by bequest and is now on display at the Art Institute of Chicago.
The popularity if the image was so great, that Rossetti went on to paint five more copies
of Beata Beatrix.
10, Monna Vanna.
This sumptuous 1866 portrait features Alexa Wilding as the model once again, depicted
in the style of sixteenth century Venetian portraits.
She appears as a bored society beauty, adorned with golden brocade, as she holds a feathered
fan and absently plays with her coral necklace.
The portrait is famous for the subject’s vacant expression
The theme of the canvas is based on the unfinished opera Monna Vanna by Sergei Rachmaninoff,
after a play by Maurice Maeterlinck.
It concerns Guido, the military commander of Pisa, who learns from his father that the
enemy will cease the ongoing conflict if Monna Vanna, the wife of Guido, goes to the enemy’s
camp, dressed only in her mantle.
Monna Vanna agrees to this demand.
11, Reverie.
This chalk on paper work was completed in 1868 and is now housed in the Ashmolean Museum
in Oxford.
It is the first of many works concerning Rossetti’s final and possibly greatest source of inspiration:
his muse Jane Morris, who was the wife of the artist’s close friend William Morris.
In 1865 the husband and wife had moved from Bexleyheath to London and so were able to
spend more time with Rossetti.
In July of that year, Jane sat for a series of photographs by John Parsons, one of which
was used by Rossetti as the basis for this chalk drawing.
Jane Morris was to have a lasting effect on the dominant image of women in Pre-Raphaelite
art in later years.
Unlike Lizzie Siddal, the golden haired, pale faced persona of the early years of the PRB,
Jane was dark, striking and unconventional in her choice of clothing.
She was a member of the Rational Dress movement, refusing to be subjected to wearing corsets
and crinolines.
From now on, the majority of Rossetti’s female subjects were to be tall, graceful,
dark and brooding females, largely based on the image of Jane Morris.
12, La Pia de’ Tolomei.
Completed by 1880, though started twelve years earlier, the canvas concerns a popular Victorian
poem by Felicia Hemans, which in turn is based upon Canto V of Dante’s Purgatorio.
The medieval poet describes his meeting with La Pia, wife of Nello della Pietra, who had
been imprisoned in a fortress in the Maremma, off the Tuscan coast, and explains how she
was eventually killed by her husband’s neglect.
The choice of subject may well have had personal influence with the artist and his model, Jane
Morris, as that time they were passionately in love and involved in a clandestine secret
affair.
The similarity between La Pia’s marriage and Jane’s to a man she was not in love
with would have had a significant meaning to the artist and sitter.
In the composition, La Pia sits on the fortress’ ramparts, surrounded by ivy, symbolic of clinging
memory, whilst she touches her wedding ring in deep contemplation of the unhappiness that
her marriage has brought her.
The sundial in the foreground represents the passing of time.
Beside the sundial, old love letters from La Pia’s husband rest beneath a breviary,
stating her forced celibacy and the disloyalty of her spouse.
The canvas was only completed after Rossetti’s assistant, Charles Fairfax Murray, provided
the artist with images of the swampy terrain around Maremma, as depicted by Rossetti in
the upper left segment of the painting.
Jane Morris appears disproportionately large in many of the artist’s images of the model.
In Pia de’ Tolomei her neck appears strangely elongated and the whiteness of her skin shines
out, making it difficult for the viewer to pay attention to any other aspect of the painting.
Jane’s hair colour is misrepresented in the canvas, as her natural colour was dark
brown, though Rossetti chose to paint it with an auburn tinge, much closer to Lizzie Siddal’s
hair colour.