Dante Gabriel Rossetti – How Art & Poetry Combine

Dante Gabriel Rossetti was born in May 1828. In 1848 Rossetti, along with John Millias and William Hunt founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood: An influential artistic group who challenged the staunch formulaic artistic traditions which had been in place since the Renaissance: And were in particular heralded by Founder of the Royal Academy, Sir Joshua Reynolds – Referred to by the group as Sir Sloshua in reference to his technique; which they considered to be a somewhat slapdash version of Mannerism.

Dante Rossetti was taught by English artist Ford Madox Brown: Ford was seven years his junior - A highly graphical, moralistic and historical painter who studied in Antwerp under reputed Belgian artist Egide Charles Gustave Wappers. Primarily Dante Rosetti was a poet and painter. It was he who felt romantic poetry and art should collaborate: And indeed his artistic style is distinguished by its tendency for Romanticism and Legendary Medieval overtones.

Many artists were influenced by the ideals of the Pre-Raphaelites: English artists William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones: The late nineteenth century Symbolist Art Movement which began around 1860 in France and Belgium: And the nineteenth century French Aesthetic Movement which accentuated the aesthetic over societal and moral subject matter.

Many of his oil paintings were accompanied by a complex, sentimental and thought provoking Sonnet - Rossetti himself was influenced by John Keats; considered to be the last of the English Romantic Poets: And it is no secret that many of his works can be linked to his own personal relationships with several of his models and muses. Girlhood of Mary Virgin was created in 1849 and is among Rossetti’s first major Pre-Raphaelite Paintings. It is accompanied by a Sonnet of which Parts I & II are inscribed upon the frame.

Girlhood of Mary depicts the young Virgin Mary in an emaciated and repressed state. According to Scottish artist and poet William Bell Scot – who became a close friend of the painter’s - Rossetti primed the surface of the canvas until ‘it was smooth as cardboard’. The Oils were applied with brushes normally used for watercolor and indeed Rossetti thinned the oils so much they were applied as watercolors. Because of this colors are transparent and lucid – This was a highly unorthodox approach at the time.

In November of the same year Rossetti began a preparatory sketch for his next work: Ecce Ancilla Domini – Also known as The Annunciation. The actual painting itself was begun shortly afterwards on December 8th 1849 and was completed toward the end of Spring in 1850. Ecce Ancilla Domini was shown at the Portland Gallery exhibition soon after where it received a severe reception.

The highly influential Victorian art critic, artist and poet John Ruskin supported the work of the Pre-Raphaelites and particularly the work of Rossetti. Even so, Rossetti rarely exhibited his paintings after 1850. And, reeling from the criticism of Ecce Ancilla Domini he abandoned oils – Primarily because watercolor art works were more favorable for private collectors. Rossetti reworked Ecce Ancilla Domini from 1859 through to January 1859: In 1853 he renamed the painting The Annunciation – ‘to guard against the imputation of Popery’ - And sold it to Francis Mac Cracken for fifty pounds.

In 1859 Rossetti left behind his dark and deeply complex medieval compositions in favor of the Italian High renaissance style. Colors became opaque: His compositions highly stylized flat pictorial scenes which focused upon powerful female imagery – It was the paintings created by Rossetti around this time which had a prevailing influence upon the European Symbolists. In 1860 Rossetti married Elizabeth Siddal who had been his muse and model since 1953 when she first sat for a watercolor by Rossetti, The Death of Beatrice.

In 1861 William Morris, Charles Faulkner and Peter Paul Marshall along with Edward Burne-Jones, Philip Webb, Ford Maddox Brown and Rossetti established Morris, Marshall, Faulkner & Co: A medieval inspired decorative arts workshop that inspired to revive hand-crafted decorative works and traditional textile arts: To which Rossetti created designs for stained glass as well as various other ornamental objects. The collaboration would have an intense and direct influence upon the interior decoration of homes and churches throughout Europe until it was closed in 1940.

Rossetti more than any other artist since Blake may be hailed as a forerunner of new ideas – Roger Fry 1916

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