Though the son of an Italian refugee, Dante Gabriel Rossetti was really more the Englishman and never even visited Italy in his lifetime. Yet later his paintings had a Mediterranean quality that made his illustrations of myths so rich-- the richly symbolic paintings really seemed to come from another period of time, back when Greece and Rome held supreme, before the pan-European cultural advancements of the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation. In 1848 the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was officially founded (Rossetti's paintings possessed the enigmatic PRB initials, which drew both praise and criticism). Initially, the Pre-Raphaelite artwork was attacked by critics as pretentious-- what with those cryptic little PRB initials and all. Respected writer John Ruskin came to their defense, and in turn became a Pre-Raphaelite friend for life. Rossetti met and eventually married the delicately beautiful Elizabeth Siddal, a wonderful, little known artist whose work he encouraged. She was a favorite model for all the Pre-Raphaelites, but soon became exclusively Rossetti's-- and more. Soon they were living and working together, inspiring each other. After numerous miscarriages, Lizzie finally gave birth to a daughter,but it was stillborn. Lizzie died soon thereafter of a drug overdose. The grieving husband threw the poems he'd been working on into her casket. Oddly, his sister Christina had already written a poem about this event. Years later, in an event that caused quite a sensation, Rossetti had Elizabeth's body exhumed so that he could retrieve the poems. He had his friends perform the dirty deed. The poems were found relatively intact. After they'd been drenched in disinfectant, Rossetti was able to read most of them and could recreate what he couldn't read. His friends also told him, in some sort of appeasement for this ghastly act of selfishness, that Lizzie looked remarkably well. Rossetti published them together with the ones he'd been working on about Jane, William Morris' wife. Rossetti was madly in love with her, and for a long time she was his muse in both words and on the canvas (though they were said to sit silently, heads huddled together, for hours). Some of his most beautiful, richly colored paintings are inspired by her: La Pia De' Tolomei, Mariana (with Jane's daughter May), La Donna Della Fiamma, and the famous Prosperine. Rossetti moved into the Morris mansion and was there alone with her when her husband took his trips to Iceland (Morris' "holy land"). Rossetti moved to feminist Barbara Bodichon's country house where he could escape the scrutiny of the critics in the city. Jane Morris visited him there and remained with her two daughters for months, until his ether abuse became apparent. Concerned for her daughter's welfare, and no doubt tired of the relationship herself, Jane reunited with her husband and the two effectively cut themselves off from Rossetti. His ether addiction worried even him. In a letter to his brother William, who referred sadly to these as Gabriel's "chloralized years," wrote that he hoped people wouldn't find out about his ether use. He was afraid that then his art would be discredited. On Easter Sunday, 1882, he died at the country house of a friend, where he'd gone in yet another vain attempt to recover his health, which had been destroyed by the chloral as his wife's had been destroyed by laudanum. |
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| A Sea Spell (1877) by Dante Gabriel Rossetti Her lute hangs shadowed in the apple tree, While flashing fingers weave the sweet-strung spell Between its cords; and as the wild notes swell, The sea-bird for those branches leaves the sea. But what sound her listening ear stoops she? What netherworld gulf-whispers does she hear, In answering echoes from planisphere, Along the wind, along the estuary? |
| Dante's residence at Art Magick . A good biography and a chance to see some of his more popular paintings |