Dante Rossetti

1. Dante Rossetti Pre-Raphaelite Poetry

2. Background • Born 1828 in London • Father was an Italian patriot exiled from Naples for his political activity and a professor of Italian at King’s College • Mother was half Italian • Children Dante, William and Christina grew up fluent in Italian and English • Dante attended Kings College • In 1846 he was accepted into the Royal Academy to study art • He left to study under Ford Maddox Brown • In 1848 he, William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais began to call themselves the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. • This group attracted other young painters, poets and critics

3. Background • In 1849 Dante exhibited his first paintings • He met Elizabeth Siddal, who became a model for many of his paintings and sketches. • They married in 1851 • Dante later met and fell in love with Jane Burden who later married Morris. Janey Morris became one of Rossetti’s idealized women • After the death of his wife, Rossetti lived with Swinburne, his brother Michael, and George Meredith. He continued painting and writing poetry • One of his models Fanny Cornforth became h9s mistress • In 1872 Rossetti suffered a mental breakdown • He died in 1882.

4. Images of Rossetti and His Stunners

5. Images

6. Rossetti’s Art

7. Rossetti’s Art

8. The Pre-Raphaelites • Developed out of Romantic Movement • A call for a fresh vision, a challenge to orthodoxies • Truth was not a given fact but something relative to the individual mind • Aim to go back to a more genuine art, rooted in realism and truth to nature • Bright paintings on a white background • Attention to detail and color • Subjects from medieval tales, poetry, and religion • Drew upon the works of Shakespeare, Keats, and Tennyson

9. Pre-Raphaelite Art

10. Pre-Raphaelite Art

11. Pre-Raphaelite Art

12. Pre-Raphaelite Art

13. Dante Rossetti’s Poetry • Longing to return to world of medieval Christendom • Combination of Anglican piety and Italian impetuosity • Attention to detail • Sister arts of painting and poetry