Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828 – 1882) was a British poet, illustrator, painter, and translator. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais.

Rossetti was later to be the main inspiration for the second generation of artists and writers influenced by the movement.

Sensuality and medieval revivalism characterized Rossetti’s art. His work also influenced the European Symbolists and was a significant precursor of the Aesthetic movement.

His father was also a poet and scholar who had emigrated from Italian to England. His family was related to The House of Rossetti, with branches of the family establishing themselves across Europe and producing numerous notable people in the arts and politics.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s personal life was closely linked to his work, especially his relationships with his models and muses.

A Virtual Tour of Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Lady Lilith
Dante’s Dream
Dante Gabriel Rossetti – Self Portrait
The Beloved
Bocca Baciata
Paolo and Francesca da Rimini
The Day Dream
The First Anniversary of the Death of Beatrice
Helen of Troy

Highlights Tour of Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Lady Lilith

“Lady Lilith” by Dante Gabriel Rossetti depicts Lilith, who is a figure from Jewish mythology and is portrayed as an iconic, Amazon-like female with long, flowing hair.

The name ‘Lilith’ is derived from the Babylonian Talmud and refers to a dangerous demon of the night. The name has been associated with the seduction of men and the murder of children.

The character is thought to have been derived from the stories of female demons in ancient Mesopotamian religion, found in the cuneiform texts of Sumer, the Akkadian Empire, Assyria, and Babylonia. Museum: Delaware Art Museum,

Dante’s Dream

“Dante’s Dream” by Dante Gabriel Rossetti depicts Dante’s dream in which he is led to the death-bed of Beatrice Portinari.

Beatrice was the object of his unfulfilled love. Dante, in black, stands rigid and paralyzed, looking towards the dying Beatrice who is lying on a bed.

Two female figures in green hold a canopy over her. An angel in red holds Dante’s hand and leans forward to kiss Beatrice. Museum: Walker Art Gallery

Dante Gabriel Rossetti – Self Portrait

Self Portrait by Dante Gabriel Rossetti depicts the young artist at age 18. He drew this self-portrait when he was a student at the Royal Academy.

Rossetti has captured the rebellious and romantic self-image he had of himself.

Rosetti would go on to become the founder of a new artistic and poetic movement, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Museum: National Portrait Gallery, London

The Beloved

“The Beloved” by Dante Gabriel Rossetti was inspired by the biblical “Song of Solomon.” It tells the story of a young woman preparing to marry.

The bride is depicted moving back her veil, while her eyes are fixed directly on the viewer. She is attended by four bridesmaids and an African page child, holding roses.

The bridal party all contrasts strikingly with the red hair and pale skin of the bride. They have varying shades of brunette hair and darker skin tones. This color contrast was carefully painted as a frame to the bride’s features. Museum: Tate Britain

Bocca Baciata

“Bocca Baciata” by Dante Gabriel Rossetti depicts a beautiful Saracen princess who, despite having relationships on numerous occasions with eight separate lovers in the space of four years, successfully presents herself to the King of the Algarve as his virgin bride.

The title means “mouth that has been kissed.” Museum: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Paolo and Francesca da Rimini

“Paolo and Francesca da Rimini” by Dante Gabriel Rossetti tells the tragic story of the lovers, Paolo and Francesca.

The story is from Dante’s Inferno and was a popular subject with artists and sculptors beginning in the late 18th Century. Rossetti’s composition is divided into three parts.

Rossetti’s real name was Charles Gabriel Dante Rossetti, but his admiration for the great Florentine poet led him to change it to Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Throughout his life, Rossetti was fascinated by stories of tragic lovers and illicit love. The subject of this painting is taken from Dante Alighieri’s most famous work, Inferno, Canto V.

This painting is a small watercolor triptych executed in the medievalist style of this period in Rossetti’s art. Museum: Tate Britain

The Day Dream

“The Day Dream” by Dante Gabriel Rossetti was initially intended to be named Monna Primavera and depicts his lover and muse Jane Morris posed in a seated position on the bough of a sycamore tree.

She holds a small stem of honeysuckle in her hand, a token of love in the Victorian era. It symbolized the secret affair Rossetti was immersed in with Jane Morris at the time. She was the model for several of Rossetti’s well-known paintings.

This painting is one of Rossetti’s last and one of his few full-length depictions during this time of his career. The painting is signed “D. Rossetti 1880” on the lower right.

The scene is a representation of a woman in a green silk dress, shaded by the canopy of the sycamore tree’s leaves. All around her, the tree branches are depicted as if they want to embrace her.

The First Anniversary of the Death of Beatrice

“The First Anniversary of the Death of Beatrice” by Dante Gabriel Rossetti shows Dante morning the Death of Beatrice, who was the object of his unfulfilled love.

The artist, Rossetti, had a lifelong passion for the works of the Italian poet Dante Alighieri and this watercolor from 1853 is an essential picture in the art history of the period.

This painting was inspired by Dante’s poem La Vita Nuova. This picture references the scene in the Vita Nuova where Dante Alighieri writes that:

“I set myself again to mine occupation, to wit, to the drawing figures of angels: in doing which, I conceived of the writing of this matter in rhyme, as for her anniversary.”

Rossetti, in the style of the Pre-Raphaelites, created a work full of complex symbols.

Helen of Troy

“Helen of Troy” by Dante Gabriel Rossetti portrays the face that was said to have launched a thousand ships. In Greek mythology, Helen of Troy was said to have been the most beautiful woman in the world.

Rossetti depicts a beautiful woman shown in three-quarter length. Her golden robes and long flowing hair are painted in rich glowing tones.

The model’s name was Annie Miller, and her golden, curly locks of hair complement her golden-colored garment. She is a typical Rossettian type, with pale skin, red lips, and expressive eyes gazing into the distance.

Legends of Helen of Troy’s beauty have inspired artists throughout history to represent her, frequently as the personification of ideal human beauty. Images of Helen start appearing in the 7th century BC.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti – Self Portrait

Title: Dante Gabriel Rossetti – Self Portrait
Artist: Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Date: 1847
Medium: Pencil and white chalk on paper
Dimensions: 20.7 × 16.8 cm (8.1 × 6.6 ″)
Museum: National Portrait Gallery, London

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Name: Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti
Born: 1828 – London, England
Died: 1882 (aged 53) – Birchington-on-Sea, Kent, England
Movement: Pre-Raphaelite Art
Notable works:
- Lady Lilith
- Dante’s Dream
- Dante Gabriel Rossetti – Self Portrait
- The Beloved
- Bocca Baciata
- Paolo and Francesca da Rimini

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Pre-Raphaelites

The Pre-Raphaelites was a group of English painters, poets, and art critics, founded in 1848. The group intended to reform art by rejecting what it considered the mechanistic approach first adopted by the artists who succeeded Raphael and Michelangelo, hence the name “Pre-Raphaelite.” The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood sought a return to the abundant detail, intense colors, and complex compositions of Pre-Raphaelite Italian art.

The Pre-Raphaelites focused on painting subjects from modern life, and literature often used historical costumes for accuracy. They painted directly from nature itself, as accurately as possible, and with intense attention to detail.

The Pre-Raphaelites defined themselves as a reform movement, created a distinct name for their art, and published a periodical to promote their ideas. A later, medieval influence extended the movement’s power into the twentieth century with artists such as John William Waterhouse.

A Virtual Tour of Pre-Raphaelite Artists

John Everett Millais

Isabella
Christ in the House of His Parents
The Martyr of Solway
Ophelia
Blow Blow Thou Wind
The Black Brunswicker
A Dream of the Past: Sir Isumbras at the Ford

William Holman Hunt

Our English Coasts
Isabella and the Pot of Basil
Self-portrait William Holman Hunt
Sheltering a Christian Missionary from the Persecution of the Druids

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Lady Lilith
Dante’s Dream
Dante Gabriel Rossetti – Self Portrait
The Beloved
Bocca Baciata
Paolo and Francesca da Rimini

John William Waterhouse

The Lady of Shalott
The Favorites of the Emperor Honorius
Circe Invidiosa
Diogenes
I Am Half-Sick of Shadows, Said the Lady of Shalott
Hylas and the Nymphs
Echo and Narcissus
Ulysses and the Sirens
Consulting the Oracle
A Tale from the Decameron
Circe Offering the Cup to Ulysses
Saint Eulalia
Fair Rosamund

Marie Spartali Stillman

Love’s Messenger

Ford Madox Brown

Romeo and Juliet
The Last of England

Henry Holiday

Dante and Beatrice

Edward Burne-Jones

The Star of Bethlehem
King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid

Frederick Sandys

Queen Eleanor
Morgan-le-Fay
Mary Magdalene

Frank Dicksee

The Funeral of a Viking

John Collier

Lady Godiva

William Dyce

Francesca da Rimini

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti Quotes

~~~

“Sometimes thou seem’ st not as thyself alone,
But as the meaning of all things that are.”

~~~

“I have been here before,
But when or how I cannot tell.”

~~~

“Conception, my boy, fundamental brain work, is what makes all the difference in art.”

~~~

“Love, which is quickly kindled in the gentle heart,
seized this man for the fair form that was taken from me,
the manner still hurts me. Love which absolves no beloved one from loving,
seized me so strongly with his charm that,
as thou seest, it does not leave me yet.”

~~~

“Your eyes smile peace.”

~~~

“Better by far, you should forget and smile than that you should remember and be sad.”
– Christina Rossetti

~~~

“Beauty, like hers, is genius.”

~~~

“A sonnet is a moment’s monument, Memorial from the Soul’s eternity To one dead deathless hour.”

~~~

“Love is the last relay and ultimate outposts of eternity.”

~~~

“It is beautiful, the world, and life itself. I am glad I have lived.”

~~~

“Beauty without the beloved is like a sword through the heart.”

~~~

“The worst moment for the atheist is when he is really thankful and has nobody to thank.”

~~~

“Look in my face; my name is Might-have-been;
I am also called No-more, Too-late, Farewell.”

~~~

“When I am dead, my dearest,
Sing no sad songs for me.”
– Christina Rossetti

~~~

“He feeds upon her face by day and night,
And she with true kind eyes looks back on him,
Fair as the moon and joyful as the light:
Not wan with waiting, not with sorrow dim;
Not as she is, but was when hope shone bright;”
– Christina Rossetti

~~~