rossetti, dante gabriel, featured paintings in detail (1)

ROSSETTI, Dante Gabriel

Featured Paintings in Detail

(1)

(paintings based on the episodes from Vita Nuova by Dante Alighieri)

ROSSETTI, Dante GabrielThe Salutation of Beatrice1880–81Oil on canvas, 154,3 x 91,4 cm Toledo Museum of Art

ROSSETTI, Dante GabrielThe Salutation of Beatrice (detail)1880–81Oil on canvas, 154,3 x 91,4 cm Toledo Museum of Art

ROSSETTI, Dante GabrielBeata Beatrix1864-1870Oil on canvas, 86,4 x 66,0 cmTate Gallery, London

ROSSETTI, Dante GabrielBeata Beatrix Detail)1864-1870Oil on canvas, 86,4 x 66,0 cmTate Gallery, London

ROSSETTI, Dante GabrielLa Donna della Fiamma 1870Chalk on paper, 75.3 x 100.7 cm Manchester City Art Galleries, Manchester

ROSSETTI, Dante GabrielLa Donna della Fiamma (detail)1870Chalk on paper, 75.3 x 100.7 cm Manchester City Art Galleries, Manchester

ROSSETTI, Dante GabrielLa Donna Della Finestra (The Lady of Pity)1879 oil on canvas, 100.65 x 73.98 cm Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge

ROSSETTI, Dante GabrielLa Donna Della Finestra (The Lady of Pity) (detail)1879 oil on canvas, 100.65 x 73.98 cm Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge

ROSSETTI, Dante Gabriel, Featured Paintings in Detail (1)

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Tanto gentile e tanto onesta parela donna mia quand’ella altrui saluta,ch’ogne lingua deven tremando muta,4e li occhi no l’ardiscon di guardare.

Ella si va, sentendosi laudare,benignamente d’umiltà vestuta;e par che sia una cosa venuta8da cielo in terra a miracol mostrare.

Mostrasi sì piacente a chi la mira,che dà per li occhi una dolcezza al core,11che ’ntender no la può chi no la prova:

e par che de la sua labbia si movaun spirito soave pien d’amore,che va dicendo a l’anima: Sospira.

Dante Alighieri[Vita Nuova XXVI 5-7]

ROSSETTI, Dante GabrielLa Donna Della Finestra (The Lady of Pity)

1879

Begun in 1870 with various studies and early versions of the general design, Rossetti did not complete the oil version until 1879. The painting illustrates the text in the later part of the Vita Nuova when Dante is grieving over the loss of Beatrice and suddenly sees “a young and very beautiful lady, who was

gazing upon me from a window with a gaze full of pity, so that the very sum of pity appeared gathered together in her”

ROSSETTI, Dante GabrielThe Salutation of Beatrice

1880–81

The Salutation of Beatrice illustrates lines from the second sonnet in Vita Nuova, which Rossetti inscribed on the gilded frame he designed specifically for the painting:

My lady looks so gentle and so pureWhen yielding salutation by the way

That the tongue trembles and has naught to sayAnd the eyes, which fain would see, may not endure.

Beatrice walks toward us, dominating the composition, while Dante, in the background, is sheltered and comforted by the red-robed figure of Love.

Rossetti's model for Beatrice was Jane Morris, wife of his friend the artist and designer William Morris. She became Rossetti's muse (and possibly his lover), particularly after the death of his wife and model, Elizabeth Siddal, in 1862. He allegedly associated his feelings

for Jane Morris with Dante's for Beatrice, adding a personal note of longing to this, his last large-scale painting.

ROSSETTI, Dante GabrielBeata Beatrix

1864-1870

Rossetti draws a parallel in this picture between the Italian poet Dante's despair at the death of his beloved Beatrice and his own grief at the death of his wife Elizabeth Siddal, who died on 11 February 1862.

The picture is a portrait of Elizabeth Siddall in the character of Beatrice. It has a hazy, transcendental quality, giving the sensation of a dream or vision, and is filled with symbolic references. Rossetti intended to represent her, not at the moment of death, but transformed by a 'sudden spiritual transfiguration' She is posed in an attitude of ecstasy, with her

hands before her and her lips parted, as if she is about to receive Communion.

In the background of the picture the shadowy figure of Dante looks across at Love, portrayed as an angel and holding in her palm the flickering flame of Beatrice's life. In the distance the Ponte Vecchio signifies the city of Florence, the setting for Dante's story. Beatrice's impending death is evoked by the dove - symbol of the holy spirit - which

descends towards her, an opium poppy in its beak.

This is also a reference to the death of Elizabeth Siddall, known affectionately by Rossetti as 'The Dove', and who took her own life with an overdose of laudanum. Both the dove and the figure of Love are red, the colour of passion, yet Rossetti envisaged the bird as a messenger, not of love, but of death. Beatrice's death, which occurred at nine o'clock on

9th June 1290, is foreseen in the sundial which casts its shadow over the number nine.

ROSSETTI, Dante GabrielLa Donna della Fiamma

1870

Drawing of a young woman seated outside, looking off to the left. She leans back against a high backed seat, her left hand touching her long wavy auburn hair, a circular mark on her left wrist. In her right hand she holds a flame containing a winged figure depicting love. She is dressed in flowing right red drapery. Ivy grows in the bottom right corner with

trees visible in the background.

Rossetti became increasingly obsessed with the wife of his good friend William Morris. She gradually took over the role of muse left vacant after the death of Elizabeth Siddal. Just as he had worked obsessively at drawing Siddal, so he now worked on the image of Morris.

The group of British artists and writers calling themselves the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, of which Dante Gabriel Rossetti was a founding member, aspired

to an aesthetic based on early Italian Renaissance art and the direct observation of nature, in contrast to what they saw as the overblown and insincere British

academic style.Rossetti never adhered to the hyper-detailed depiction of nature characteristic of some Pre-Raphaelite artists like William Holman

Hunt, instead developing a more romantic, poetic style.

Rossetti found a rich source of inspiration in the works of his namesake, thirteenth-century Italian poet Dante Alighieri.

In 1848 Rossetti translated La Vita Nuova from Italian . In this poem, and in the Divine Comedy, Dante charts his love for the

young Beatrice and his grief at her early death. It was at this time that Rossetti met Elizabeth Siddal and became obssessed with the

parallel of their lives and the Renaissance lovers. He used Elizabeth as a model for Beatrice. Her early death re-inforced this

association.

rossetti, dante gabriel, featured paintings in detail (1)

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