THE ROSSETTIS at the TATE BRITAIN on the 13th, June 2023

 

THE ROSSETTIS at the TATE BRITAIN on the 13^th, June 2023

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Ecce Ancilla Domini, The Annunciation, 1849-50

The Rossettis is a big baggy exhibition which attempts to stuff everything about the famous siblings and their friends and associates into several hours of disassociation.  The exhibition begins by stressing the importance of Cristina’s poetry, especially her work Goblin Market and carol In the Bleak Midwinter, works that are memorable and popular.  Gabriel’s poetry is also mentioned, or rather the tension in him which separated his alternate aspirations united in his fascination with Dante Aligheri and adoption of the Medieval poet’s name.  However, Gabriel was never to become a well known poet, although some of his poems were buried with his muse, Lizzie Siddal (DGR’s pet name for Elizabeth Siddal who changed her name, omitting the final l on DGR’s request), and then retrieved seven years later in a macabre tomb raiding ordeal when it was observed that Siddal’s hair was still growing and filling her coffin.

Christina Rossetti, Goblin Market, 1865

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was essentially a reactionary group who sought to revive the Medieval period in works that are executed with amazing precision and artistry but are reactionary, tired, and bizarre in terms of their subject matter and themes. Their rationale was made in terms of reviving art by opposing Mannerism and other irrelevant, academic forms of painting by going back to the simplicity and vivid colour of the early Renaissance.  The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood idealised the period before Raphael, a Renaissance artist who had summarised in his work the main discoveries of perspective, technique, and style.  What the PRB might have intended by the term ‘pre-Raphaelite’ is a concoction of Florentine primitivism, the work of Cimabue and Giotto, and possibly a dash of Dante Aligheri’s poetry but their own tastes and predilections are really for a kind of bland Medievalist caricature which never goes so far as incorporating traits found in artists before Raphael.  They were not alone because other 19th century artists like Alfred Tennyson, Richard Wagner, Sir Walter Scott and others all pursued medieval revivalism and this was also echoed in the architectural taste for follies and fantasy castles like Schlossneuschwanstein in Bavaria.  Other artists involved in the movement were William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais.  Later members were Edward Burne-Jones, William Morris, and John William Waterhouse.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Lady Lillith 1866-68, altered 1872-73

For Gabriel the romantic journey of the poet Dante Aligheri (1265-1321), rejecting materialism to discover spiritual love, encapsulated in the poet’s depiction of Beatrice (a woman Dante loved but who rejected him in favour of a wealthy banker) in Paradisio, the last book of The Divine Comedy, epitomised the poet’s task.  Gabriel was aware of the tensions inherent in social class and personal relationships.  Another poet and artist that Gabriel admired was William Blake who by this time was still relatively unknown.  Later, he joined the Aesthetic movement summarised in its rejection of materialism, art pour l’art. As he became materially comfortable, he rejected the material root of art.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Paola and Francesca da Rimini, 1855

DGR’s relationship with Elizabeth Siddal (1829-1862) eventually led to marriage but two years after and following a miscarriage, she died after imbibing a large dose of laudanum.  DGR’s painting Beata Beatrix idealises Siddal as Dante’s lost love Beatrice.  In the painting a bird brings her a poppy seed symbolising the laudanum, a heroin compound derived from the poppy (sometimes called ‘tears of the poppy’ or, properly, Lachryma papaveris) and prescribed drug that Siddal overdosed on.  Of course, she had suffered from a respiratory illness aggravated by her modelling in a cold bath for John Everett Millais's painting Ophelia (1851-2).  Siddal was an artist, poet and a model, for the group often used members and their friends as models rather than pay for expensive professionals.

Beata Beatrix by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1864 c. Tate

One of the rooms at Tate Britain is entirely devoted to analysing the racial motifs in DGR's painting The Beloved.  The painting has been described as a celebration of whiteness and the presence of a black figure in the foreground was described by DGR as a requirement for something 'jet', in other words a strong colour contrast.  The source material for the painting was the Song of Solomon and DGR surrounds the main figure with a group of women with darker hair and  complexions as if to suggest a hierarchy of race.  DGR explored themes of exoticism and orientalism, matching the new dynamic of British Imperialism.  The artists intentions may have been framed in terms of materials, contrasts, style but the exhibition's main paradigm is ideological, insisting on the dehumanisation of the black figure in The Beloved.  The acutely observed details of DGR's preparation and the different models involved in the final work makes for interesting viewing.

Elizabeth Eleanor Siddal, Lady Affixing Pennant to a Knight's Spear, 1856

The exhibition very quickly loses interest in Christina at the expense of DGR's paintings although it does very well to present her poetry in the first room and it does leave a lasting impression that resonates through the subsequent rooms.  The exhibition unconvincingly portrays Christina and DGR's escapades and forays into radicalism such as Christina's work in a refuge for 'fallen women'.  More important is the exhibition's depiction of DGR and his various muses, women such as working-class Fanny Cornforth who was his model in Bocca Baciata (The Kissed Mouth), 1859.  Later models included Alexa Wilding who appeared in emotive portraits inspired by Renaissance and mythological subjects.  Gabriel's final muse was Jane Morris (born Jane Burden) (1839-1914) who was to become the wife of artist and designer William Morris (1834-1896).  

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Prosperine, 1874 (c) Tate

The exhibition adds a postscript outlining some of the influences of the Rossettis in the 20^th century such as their posthumous appearance in a Ken Russell movie.  However, the paintings speak for themselves, and they must be seen because a photograph is no substitute for the delicate sensuality they depict.

Paul Murphy, Tate Britain, 13th June 2023

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Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Monna Vanna, 1866 (c) Tate

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Venus Verticordia, 1868, (c) Private Collection