The realism of the Pre-Raphaelites developed an absorption in detail, a "bit by bit" painting that was too often detrimental to the whole. In the best works of the early Italians the unity is, in spite of that attention to detail, admirably maintained--in other words the values are preserved. It was not long, however, before Rossetti quitted the path of the Pre-Raphaelites for a broader one. His paintings are entirely symbolistic, therefore literary. Given the personality of an artist equally gifted as painter and poet, this need not surprise us. Indeed, seeing that Rossetti's pictorial conceptions are exclusively literary, he might be considered as more dominantly a writer than a painter; and this is the light in which he saw himself. We might say he painted "sentiments" and add that sentiment is the property of literature, but in Rossetti's case they have at least the advantage of intensity. They come straight from life, for all his art is more or less connected with the tragedy of his own existence. Herein lies the value of Rossetti's works as artistic creations. II Rossetti's family, as his name indicates, was of Italian origin. His ancestors on his father's side belong to Vasto d'Ammone, a small city of the Abruzzi. The original name of the family was Della Guardia. Probably the diminutive Rossetti was given to some red-haired ancestor and retained in spite of the disappearance of that peculiarity. The grandfather of the poet, Dominico Rossetti, was in the iron trade, his son Gabriel Rossetti, born at Vasto, became a custodian of the Bourbon Museum at Naples. He was an ardent patriot and one of the group of reformers who obtained a constitution from Ferdinand, King of the Two Sicilies, in 1820. The return of the King with the Austrian army obliged Gabriel Rossetti, who was compromised by his actions as well as by his patriotic songs, to make his escape from Italy. He did this by the help of the English admiral, commanding the fleet in the bay. Indeed he left Italy disguised in an English uniform. [Illustration: PLATE II.--ECCE ANCILLA DOMINI From the oil painting (28½ in. by 17 in.) painted in 1850 and is now in the Tate Gallery This picture was first exhibited in 1850 at the "Free Exhibition" in Portland Place. It was very slightly retouched in 1873 for the then owner, Mr. Graham. It is rightly considered the most typical of Rossetti's "Pre-Raphaelite" period.]