In comparing the study for _Christ at the House of Simon the Pharisee_
with the completed drawing, the question arises whether, with the
elaboration that has come into the latter, some of the intensity of
the study has escaped; or whether, on the other hand, the subject has
gained. The simplicity of the first undoubtedly possesses something
which is subsequently lost in elaboration, and yet taking the completed
picture and looking into it one finds a lesson in Rossetti's methods.
We find that by dwelling upon his subject he has emphasised certain
notes, has repeated as it were a refrain, and made more spirited
and poetic in rendering the figure of the lover in the foreground.
After-thoughts have given every touch that could possibly enrich,
and, at the same time concentrate, dramatic motif in this figure. The
embroidery on his coat, the flowers in his hair, the hair itself, and
the face so mocking and fascinating and sure of itself, is more in the
spirit of the subject than the gentler face as it appears in the sketch.
The figure of the Magdalene gains in many ways as completed, and
though the distressed loving face and the flowing hair of the sketch
are changed, the alteration of the expression on the face from one of
intense distress to one of proud determination is very interesting
as showing how his subjects grew and changed under his hand. It is
wholly to the gain of the picture the different gesture which he has
arrived at in the second drawing, where the Magdalene with both hands
throws the flowers from her hair. The dramatic quality upon which we
have insisted as part of Rossetti's art is nowhere better shown than
in the deer quietly eating leaves from the wall, all unconscious that
there is acted out beside it the most pathetically beautiful drama of
the world. One misses in the finished picture some of the sensitive
drawing given in the sketch to the Magdalene's dress. Here, instead,
her clothes are as if she were perfectly still; they give no indication
of her movements and the stormy action round her. That is the fault
of Pre-Raphaelitism--to fritter away the spirit for the sake of the
embroidery upon the body's clothes; to lose emphasis in elaboration, to
sacrifice a greater beauty for a meaner one.
Certain characteristics that are strongest in Rossetti's art are
the outcome of the intensely human course his imagination took. His
drawings are of the kind that one can live with long; looking into
them often one is always rewarded by finding some new thing, and
one's thoughts are ever being arrested by new appreciation of some
quaint conceit. The depths of Rossetti's imagination are such in these
drawings that we may look into them whilst watching the changes of our
own thought.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account