Dante Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelite movementWood, Esther (of Hampstead)
Philosophy
Dante Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelite movement
Wood, Esther (of Hampstead)
Pre-Raphaelitism -- Great Britain; Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, 1828-1882
In the design for “The Lady of Shalott” Holman Hunt exhibits traces—very
unusual for him—of the influence of Rossetti upon his own work. For
pathetic dignity and sensuous grace, the entangled lady, girt about with
the web of dreams, might well stand among Rossetti’s children, and not
be detected as of other birth. Rossetti’s own “Lady of Shalott” is much
less fair a type, and belongs to the earliest and most archaic manner of
his Arthurian period. Much more characteristic of the painter’s
individuality is Holman Hunt’s “Oriana,” a grave, strong woman like his
later Madonnas, whose mien belies the conventional sex-theory which
ascribes to man alone the “wisdom-principle,” and assigns to womanhood
the principle of “love.”
Rossetti, again, seems to have been largely influenced by Madox Brown in
his illustration to “The Palace of Art,” save for the highly
characteristic drawing of the girl at the organ, whose pose is almost
identical with that of the dead Beatrice in “Dante’s Dream,” of a much
later date. “Sir Galahad” is, however, entirely original in manner, and
represents the best level of Rossetti’s Arthurian designs. It shows the
knight halting, weary but not dispirited, at a wayside shrine, and
bending with worn and yet resolute face over the holy water that awaits
the pilgrim-worshippers. His horse, bearing the white banner marked with
the red cross of sacred chivalry, stands at the gate, and a group of
nuns are seen within, ringing the chapel bell.
The facile simplicity and grace of Millais, who was more accustomed to
the task of book-illustration than his collaborateurs, found favourable
scope in “Edward Grey” and “The Day-dream,” in which the figure of the
half-awakened girl in the Sleeping Palace is drawn with exquisitely
tender charm.
The edition, on the whole, probably tended to increase the reputation of
the Pre-Raphaelites as draughtsmen, and to dispel some hard-dying
illusions as to their distinguishing qualities in design, though its
independent merits were not of exceptional mark.
Only once again does Rossetti appear in the field of book illustration.
In 1862 he executed two designs for the first volume of poems published
by his sister, Miss Christina Rossetti, under the title of “Goblin
Market.” These drawings (“Buy from us with a golden curl” and “Golden
head by Golden head”) were followed in 1866 by two more of a similar
character (“The long hours go and come and go,” and “You should have
wept her yesterday”), to illustrate the second volume of poetry from the
same pen, entitled, “The Prince’s Progress.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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