The Rossettis at
The Delaware Art Museum
La Ghirlandata
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1873)
Guildhall Art Gallery
For my 24th birthday, my fiancé told me we could do whatever I wanted. Without hesitation, I told him that I wanted to go to the Delaware Art Museum for the Rossetti exhibition. It’s close to home, it’s another museum for my ever-growing list, and I love a good special exhibition.
“Do you like Rossetti?” he asked on the drive over.
“I don’t know anything about him,” I admitted, then continued speed-reading a summary of the Pre-Raphaelite movement so that I didn’t go into the exhibition blind.
Two hours later, I came out of the exhibition as the Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s number one fan. Everything about the his work and the Pre-Raphaelite movement— the colors, the beautiful women, the story-telling, the balance of symbolism and aesthetic— captivated me.
The exhibition goes deeper than Dante’s work. His paintings are displayed alongside the art and poetry of his siblings, as well as the works of his wife and muse, Elizabeth Siddal. Come along with me to experience the comprehensive works of the Rosettis in this first-of-its-kind exhibition.
Defining Pre-Raphaelite
Venus Verticordia
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1868)
Private Collection
What does the term “Pre-Raphaelite” mean? In short, it’s a term like “Renaissance” or “Impressionist” used to define a particular movement or style of art. But what makes Pre-Raphaelite, Pre-Raphaelite?
Dante Gabriel Rossetti was one of the founding members of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood. He attended the Royal Academy art school, and sought to push back against the rigid structure the academy was teaching young artists. At the time, the works Renaissance artist Raphael were seen as the pinnacle of artistic achievement, with their harmonious colors and balanced compositions. Rossetti and the rest of the Brotherhood preferred to adopt the techniques that came from before Raphael, hence Pre-Raphaelite. They were influenced by nature, mythology, the middle ages, and early Italian Renaissance art.
Madonna of the Goldfinch,
Raphael (1506) The Uffizi Gallery
*Not displayed in the exhibition
Ecce Ancilla Domini!
Ecce Ancilla Domini! & Study
Dante Gabriel Rosetti (1849-1850)
Tate
The Annunciation, the moment when the angel Gabriel tells the Virgin Mary that she will bear the son of God, is one of the most popular scenes in art history. Rossetti’s take on the Annunciation in his Ecce Ancilla Domini! is one of his most compelling works.
Traditionally, the Annunciation is depicted as the moment when Mary graciously accepts her role as the mother of the son of God, like in Botticelli’s Cestello Annunciation. Rossetti takes a different approach. He shows us a young woman shrinking away from the angel, emphasizing the fear and uncertainty young Mary would have felt. The symbols of the Annunciation are still there- the reds and blues associated with Mary, the lilies representing purity- but the scene carries an entirely different emotional weight than Annunciations before it.
Rossetti’s siblings assisted him with the painting. William posed for Gabriel, and Christina posed for Mary. His study of Christina for the painting is displayed alongside it.
Cestello Annunciation
Sandro Botticelli (1489) The Uffizi Gallery
*Not displayed in the exhibition
Rossetti and Siddal
The Tune of the Seven Towers
Dante Gabriel Rosetti (1857)
Tate
Lady Affixing Pennant to Knight’s Spear
Elizabeth Eleanor Siddal (1856)
Tate
Elizabeth Siddal came into the Pre-Raphaelite circles as a model, but soon came to pursue her own career as an artist and share space in Rossetti’s studio. The pair fell in love, and married in 1860. Siddal was something of a muse to Rossetti, and they also were often swapping ideas while sharing the studio.
Rossetti’s The Tune of the Seven Towers and Siddal’s Lady Affixing Pennant to Knight’s Spear have some obvious similarities. Both are scenes inspired by the middle ages, and both scene are split by the hard diagonal line of the spear. This suggests that the artists were inspired by one another, and the earlier date on Siddal’s work tells us that, despite the fact that Rossetti was better known, Siddal’s works were not just imitations of her lover’s.
Even after becoming a painter, Siddal continued to model. She is the Francesca da Rimini to Rossetti’s Paolo (modeled after himself) in his work Paolo and Francesca da Rimini. This three part painting is based on Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy. Paolo and Francesca’s affair is shown on the left, the author and Virgil are at the center, and on the right we see Paolo and Francesca again, condemned to an eternity in the swirling winds of hell for their transgressions.
Paolo and Francesca da Rimini
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1855)
Tate
Rossetti the Poet
Lady Lilith
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
(1866-1868, altered 1872-1873)
Delaware Art Museum
In addition to painting, Rossetti also practiced poetry. The two talents were not isolated, but rather inspired one another. Rossetti’s Lady Lilith pulls from his poem Body’s Beauty (1866):
Of Adam's first wife, Lilith, it is told (The witch he loved before the gift of Eve,)
That, ere the snake's, her sweet tongue could deceive, And her enchanted hair was the first gold.
And still she sits, young while the earth is old, And, subtly of herself contemplative,
Draws men to watch the bright web she can weave,
Till heart and body and life are in its hold.
The rose and poppy are her flowers; for where Is he not found, O Lilith, whom shed scent
And soft-shed kisses and soft sleep shall snare?
Lo! as that youth's eyes burned at thine, so went
Thy spell through him, and left his straight neck bent
And round his heart one strangling golden hair.
Jane Morris and Classical Muses
Mnemosyne,
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1881)
Delaware Art Museum
Proserpine
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1874)
Tate
Rossetti’s marriage to Elizabeth Siddal was cut short by her death in 1862. In the later years of his life, he pursued a relationship with Jane Morris, wife of William Morris, a fellow member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
Like Elizabeth, Jane became a model and muse for Rossetti. In Proserpine, Jane is depicted as the ancient goddess of spring, who was trapped in the underworld for six months of the year by Pluto. Rossetti painted Jane as Proserpine several times, likely as a reference to her being ‘trapped’ in her marriage to William. Rossetti and Jane also spent several summers together while William was traveling in Iceland, which mirrors Proserpine’s myth where she is trapped in the underworld for the winter and regains her freedom in the summers.
Jane Morris also modeled for Mnemosyne. Mnemosyne was the Greek goddess of memory, and this painting is one of Rossetti’s last before his death in 1882.
The Rossettis will be on display at the Delaware Art Museum through 1/28/2024