On this day in 1828, Dante Gabriel Rossetti was born.

Something a bit different and more up Daughter C’s alley than mine, but I’ll give it a go.

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This work was executed while Rossetti and other artists were decorating the Oxford Union with medievalist murals. In Oxford, Rossetti saw Jane Burden, later Mrs William Morris, and immediately asked her to pose for him. She is the model for Princess Sabra, threading a lock of her hair through St George’s helmet.

The claustrophobic composition is characteristic of much of Rossetti’s work at this time. Sabra’s embrace of an armoured figure, enmeshing him with her hair, and St George’s distracted gaze hint at Rossetti’s dilemma of being involved with Elizabeth Siddall but feeling a strong attraction for Jane.

Gallery label, August 2004

Britannica informed me that Rossetti was an English painter and poet (and founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood) so I went in search of his work. Daughter C left a great many art books up in the apartment, but it seemed like a lot of effort to trudge all the way up there, so I just looked on my crappy old art book shelves. “The Wedding…” I found in The Lives of the Painters Volume Four Plates and Index (1969). (Image courtesy of The Tate Gallery.)

“The March of Realism: The Nineteenth Century” in A World History of Art (1937), suggests that this was an interesting time in the art world. Four “decisive movements” followed one right after the other with lots of overlap and as I said, this is not my alley. But about 30 pages or so into Chapter XXVI I finally got to the part about the “Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.”

They declared war on what they termed “slosh in art,” of which England in 1850 had plenty. … They would observe from nature, not follow conventions. they would paint pictures with substance.

Their ambitions were above reproach. But it happened there was not a born painter in the group. They were admirable minor poets and pamphleteers; … three or four were competent illustrators. …

Dante Gabriel Rossetti was the foremost poet of the group…

Sheldon Cleney, A World History of Art (1937), p824

Daily Reading May 12

• “The Blessed Damozel” [an analysis of the poem is here]
• “The Sonnet” [and do read the sidebar]
• “The House of Life”

The Pocket University Library includes 11 of the 101 sonnets from “The House of Life.” I’m not going to list them. But I do suggest you take a look and choose a couple that fit your mood.

Stay well and Keep Reading.