Okay, let's get into it. Today we are taking
a deep dive into the, well, the incredibly complex
and fascinating world of Gabriel Charles Dante
Rossetti. Even the name tells you something,
doesn't it? It really does. It's like a statement
of intent. And his life, well, it's a story of
duality, really. If you want to understand the
Victorian art world, you kind of have to grapple
with Rossetti. He seems to embody so many contradictions.
Exactly. He's this English poet and artist, but
he's also... deeply, intensely Italian in his
outlook, his romanticism. He kicks off his career
as this cultural rebel trying to bring moral
reform to art. Right. The whole pre -Raphaelite
thing. Yes. But then later in life, he shifts
into this figure that, well, the sources describe
pretty dramatically as living a life of languorous
sensuality. And that journey from the revolutionary
idealist to the... almost decadent figure. That's
the core of what we need to explore today. Absolutely.
It's the central narrative. He was born in 1828.
Right from the start, people point to his family
background. It's seen as key to understanding
him. His father was Gabriele Rossetti, the Italian
scholar. Precisely. An Italian scholar, a political
emigre, no less. And his mother had Tuscan and
Greek heritage. So this mix. Contemporaries often
talked about it, maybe a bit simplistically,
as, you know, warm southern blood. Ah, that old
trope. Right. But it was explicitly cited as
giving him and his siblings, including, of course,
the famous poet Christina Rossetti, their intense
nature and wealth of emotion. And this intensity
wasn't just personality. It was the driving force
behind his art. It seems so. It fueled the Pre
-Raphaelite Brotherhood's revolutionary beginnings,
gave his poetry that emotional weight, and maybe
tragically, also played a part in his later decline.
One thing that strikes me immediately is how
he refused to separate his two main talents.
Painting and poetry seem completely intertwined
for him. Oh, completely. That's maybe the crucial
takeaway for anyone trying to understand Rossetti.
Poetry and image just belong together in his
world. He didn't just illustrate poems, did he?
It was more complex than that. Much more. He'd
write sonnets specifically for his paintings.
Think of the verses for the Girlhood of Mary
Virgin. And then he'd turn around and create
paintings to illustrate poems. His own, his sister's,
others. He called them... Double works. Double
works. I like that. Neither art form is just
serving the other. Exactly. They're in dialogue,
enhancing each other. Okay, so let's go back
to the beginning. He starts life known as Gabriel.
Yes, just Gabriel to the family. But when he
starts publishing, putting his work out there,
he deliberately puts Dante first. It's a powerful
signal, isn't it? A clear nod to Dante Alighieri.
It tells you straight away about his passion
for medieval Italy, for its art and its poetry.
He's basically branding himself from the outset.
Pretty much. And like his siblings, he had this
dual ambition right from the start, poet and
painter. You can trace his training King's College
School, then Henry Sass's Drawing Academy for
a few years. Around 1841 to 45. That's right.
Then a brief, apparently rather impatient spell
at the Royal Academy Schools. But maybe the most
important connection was studying sort of informally
under Ford Maddox Brown. Ah, Maddox Brown, a
key figure. Absolutely. They stayed incredibly
close, professionally and personally, for his
whole life. A really vital relationship. But
the big bang, the moment that really shook things
up, comes in 1848. Which feels appropriate, given
all the revolutions happening elsewhere that
year. It does feel fitting. This is the birth
of the Pre -Raphaelite Brotherhood, the PRB.
And it starts almost by chance, in a way. How
so? Well, Rossetti saw a painting by William
Holman Hunt. It was the Eve of St. Agnes. based
on the Keats poem. And he saw something in it.
He saw kindred spirit, a shared sense of radical
idealism, a similar artistic and literary vision.
So he sought Hunt out. And then very quickly,
the core trio came together. Rossetti, Hunt,
and John Everett Millay. And this wasn't just,
you know, three guys deciding to paint together.
This was a movement. Oh, absolutely. They had
a manifesto. They wanted nothing less than a
complete reform of English art. And the name
itself, Pre -Raphaelite, tells you their target.
They were rejecting everything that came after
Raphael and Michelangelo. Exactly. They saw two
major problems with the art of their time. First,
what they called the mechanistic approach of
the mannerists, the artists who followed Raphael.
They felt it had become all about rigid rules,
idealized poses, predictable stuff, no real feeling
or observation. Okay, so reject the mannerists.
And second... They rejected the whole system
of academic training standardized by Sir Joshua
Reynolds back in the 18th century. You know,
the focus on grand, generalized, noble themes
above everything else. They basically thought
art had become stuffy, academic, and completely
out of touch with reality. So if that's what
they were against, what were they for? What did
this pre -Raphaelite truth actually look like?
It was a call for, well, a kind of radical honesty
in art. They wanted to go back to the art before
Raphael, the early Italian Quattrocento, the
15th century, and also Flemish art. They saw
real spiritual depth and incredible technical
skill there. What characterized that style for
them? Things like abundant detail, intense colors
in complex compositions, and a fierce commitment
to realism. They were heavily influenced by the
critic John Ruskin, who became a major champion
for them. Ruskin was huge back then. Immensely
influential. And Ruskin really emphasized their
methods. Every background painted to the last
touch in the open air, he said. And maybe most
radical for the time, every figure had to be
a true portrait of some living person. No more
idealized generic saints or heroes. Precisely.
And that's where Rossetti immediately got into
hot water. using real contemporary people for
sacred figures. With his first big paintings.
Yes, straight away. The Girlhood of Mary Virgin
in 1849, and then, even more controversially,
Ecce and Scylla Domini in 1850, the Annunciation
scene. What was so shocking about them? He used
this intense realism to show the Virgin Mary
not as some distant, ethereal queen of heaven,
but as a recognizable teenage girl. Maybe a bit
awkward, looking quite apprehensive, reacting
to this overwhelming event. It completely defied
Victorian expectations of religious art. And
his technique was unconventional too, right?
He wasn't just painting like everyone else. Not
at all. That's a really key point. William Bell
Scott, who knew him well. watched him work and
noted how different it was. He wasn't using the
standard heavy oil techniques. What did he do
instead? He used watercolor brushes, apparently,
on canvas that he'd primed incredibly white and
smooth, almost like cardboard. Then he'd apply
the oil paint in thin, transparent layers, almost
like glazes, over this brilliant white ground.
Why? What was the effect? Luminosity. Intense,
glowing color. Scott said it was done purely
from the aesthetic motive, not following any
orthodox rules. It immediately marked him as
an innovator, an outsider. So you've got radical
subject matter, radical techniques. Did it go
down well when Ece and Saladomini was shown?
It absolutely did not. The reaction was savage,
widespread, hostile. The sources call it increasingly
hysterical. It was part of a general critical
onslaught against the PRB that year. What were
the criticisms? Bad taste, definitely. Blasphemy
was thrown around. And, ironically, given their
focus on detail, technical incompetence, they
just didn't look like proper paintings to the
establishment. And this had a lasting impact
on Rossetti. Huge. Career -changing. He basically
recoiled from public exhibition for his major
oil paintings after that. He couldn't face that
kind of attack again. Instead, he turned towards
smaller watercolors, drawings, things he could
sell privately to patrons who understood what
he was doing. It was a major pivot. OK, so the
big public splash in oils ends badly. He retreats.
And where does he retreat to? It seems like he
leans right into the Dante part of his name.
He really does. He throws himself into medievalism,
into literature. That becomes his refuge and
actually a source of considerable success. This
is when he starts his translation work. Yes.
He gets deeply involved in translating medieval
Italian poetry. His most famous work from this
time is his translation of Dante Alighieri's
La Vita Nuova. Which was published later. Published
in 1861, initially as the Early Italian Poets,
though was later retitled Dante and His Circle.
This work really cemented his reputation, not
just as a painter, but as a serious literary
figure. He became this kind of bridge connecting
Victorian England back to the world of Italian
romance. And this period, the 1850s, is also
when Elizabeth Siddle enters his life. Ah, Siddle.
yes absolutely pivotal they met around 1850 she
was modeling for various prb artists initially
but rossetti became completely captivated by
her utterly for the next decade she became everything
to him his primary muse definitely but also his
pupil he taught her to draw and paint quite seriously
his great passion and eventually in 1860 his
wife Their relationship, which was incredibly
intense and, well, complicated, really underpins
so much of his art from this decade. So his art
in the 50s reflects this turn towards literature
and medieval themes. Absolutely. It's steeped
in Dante, obviously, but also hugely inspired
by Sir Thomas Mallory's Le Morte d 'Arthur, the
King Arthur stories. And technically, since he
was avoiding big oil paintings, he innovated
in watercolor. He did. He developed this really
distinctive watercolor technique. Instead of
thin washes, he used thick... dense pigments
mixed with gum arabic white gum to make the paint
richer more opaque almost like oil paint in its
intensity but with a unique texture he was deliberately
trying to mimic the look of medieval illuminated
manuscripts. You know, those incredibly rich,
jewel -like miniature paintings in old books.
Ah, right. That makes sense with the medieval
subjects. It was a perfect match aesthetically.
Now, we should mention he did try one major modern
life subject, sticking to the original PRB idea,
the painting called Found. He started it around
1853. What was that about? It depicted a farmer
finding his former sweetheart, now a prostitute,
collapsed in the street in London. A fallen woman
theme. But he never finished it. He kept coming
back to it. But ultimately, he just gravitated
much more strongly towards symbolic mythological
medieval imagery. The pull was too strong. And
it's during this phase that his influence starts
to really spread, attracting younger artists.
Yes, significantly. His focus on Arthurian legends
and that intense medieval style really resonated
with William Morris and Edward Burne -Jones.
They sought him out. They did, around 1856. They
were students at Oxford. Hugely inspired by him,
they basically became his disciples. Rossetti
took them under his wing. And this leads to the
Oxford Union Project. Exactly. The famous, or
maybe infamous, Oxford Union murals. Rossetti
got the commission to decorate the debating hall,
and he recruited Morris, Brun Jones, and a few
others to paint scenes from Le Morte d 'Or. Infamous
because they didn't last very long. Precisely.
Technically, it was a bit of a mess. They painted
directly onto the wall without proper preparation,
trying a sort of fresco technique that they didn't
fully understand. The paint started fading and
flaking almost immediately. You can barely see
them now. They're described as barely decipherable.
A noble failure, perhaps. But the real legacy
of that project wasn't the murals themselves.
What was it, then? It was who Rossetti found
to model for the paintings. He recruited two
sisters, Bessie and Jane Burton. And Jane, with
her really striking, unconventional looks, she
became a major focus for Rossetti. And she later
married William Morris. She did in 1859, which,
well, set up a very complex and emotionally charged
dynamic between Rossetti, Morris, and Jane that
lasted for the rest of their lives. Thinking
bigger picture, Rossetti wasn't just interested
in painting and poetry, but the whole aesthetic
package. even book design. Yes, he was very critical
of standard Victorian book production, all that
gaudy ornamentation, as he called it. He wanted
books themselves to be beautiful objects with
well -designed bindings and, crucially, illustrations
that were artworks in their own right. He was
ahead of his time there, anticipating the arts
and crafts movement. Definitely a precursor.
Yeah. And his big chance to influence this came
with the mocks in Tennyson. The 1857 edition
of Tennyson's poems. That's the one. A really
ambitious project. The publisher, Edward Moxon,
recruited Rossetti, Hunt, and Millais, the original
PRB stars, to illustrate it. It became a landmark
in the history of illustration. And Rossetti
had a very specific idea about what illustrations
should do. He didn't just want them to copy the
text. Not at all. He had a revolutionary view.
He wrote about it in a letter in 1855. He said
he wanted to illustrate poems where one can allegorize
on one's own hook, without killing for oneself
and everyone, a distinct idea of the poets. allegorize
on one's own hook. What does that mean exactly?
It means he saw the illustrations not just as
reflections of the text, but as independent artworks
inspired by the text. They were like independent
subject paintings placed within the book. They
could offer their own interpretation, add layers
of meaning, expand the poem's possibilities.
So the illustrator becomes almost a co -creator
with the poet. Exactly. It elevates the status
of illustration enormously. hugely influential
for later artists. Now let's touch on the religious
aspect again. We know he loved medieval themes,
and this coincided with the Anglo -Catholic revival,
the Tractarian movement. Yes, the Oxford movement.
Starting around 1833, it was all about bringing
back more ritual, symbolism, a more Catholic
feel, into the Church of England. This definitely
fed into Rossetti's aesthetic interests in the
late 40s and early 50s. He loved the visual richness,
the sense of ancient tradition. And you can see
that in his early work. Clearly. In The Girlhood
of Mary Virgin, for example, there are details
like the little altar with flowers, which looks
very Catholic. And the subject itself, Mary sewing
a red altar cloth, directly connects to the Tractarian
emphasis on women doing traditional church embroidery.
Remember, the PRB's original aim included moral
reform, often expressed through this kind of
religious sincerity. But here's the paradox,
isn't it? He uses all this religious imagery,
biblical language. Think of the Blessed Demizel
or his poem, Avyet, personally. Personally, he
wasn't conventionally religious at all. His brother,
William Michael, who knew him best, stated quite
clearly that Dante Gabriel professed no religious
faith. Apparently, he only went to church very
occasionally. So why use all the religious themes?
For their power. That feels very Rossetti. Using
the form without necessarily buying into the
content. It's that consistent duality again,
isn't it? Right. Let's move into the 1860s because
this seems to be where everything shifts dramatically
again. He's married Elizabeth Siddle and he goes
back to oil painting. He does. But it's a completely
different kind of oil painting. He totally abandons
that detailed, intricate PRB style. So what's
the new style like? It's the style most people
probably associate with Rossetti now. These powerful
close -up images of women in flat pictorial spaces
characterized by dense color. Very sensual. Very
intense. And where is he looking for inspiration
now, if not the early Italians? He shifts his
gaze forward to the high Renaissance masters.
People like Titian, Veronese. He's drawn to their
rich colors, their textures, their portrayal
of opulent beauty. It's a much more, well, fleshy
aesthetic. And this style had a big impact later
on. Huge. It became a major influence on the
development of the European symbolist movement
towards the end of the century. They love that
intense... mysterious, psychologically charged
feel. But this artistic transformation happens
alongside immense personal tragedy. The death
of Elizabeth Siddle in 1862. Yes, it's impossible
to separate the two. Her death was absolutely
devastating for him. She died from an overdose
of laudanum, which was an opium tincture widely
used then. And it was suspected suicide. Highly
suspected, yes. Especially as it came shortly
after she had delivered a stillborn child. Rossetti
was overwhelmed by grief and perhaps guilt. Which
led to that incredibly famous, almost gothic
gesture. The burial of the poems, yes. In a kind
of dramatic, grief -stricken impulse, he took
the only manuscript of many of his unpublished
poems and placed it in the coffin with Elizabeth
before she was buried at Highgate Cemetery. But
that wasn't the end of the story for those poems.
No, it wasn't. Years passed, but friends and
his agent kept urging him to retrieve them. They
argued the poems were too important to be lost
forever. And eventually he agreed. Reluctantly,
yes. In 1869, he gave permission for the coffin
to be exhumed, secretly, at night. The manuscript
was recovered, apparently slightly damaged, but
legible. And this led to their publication of
the controversial 1870 volume. Wow. And artistically,
how did he deal with her death? Did he stop painting
her? Quite the opposite, in a way. He continued
to paint her, but her image became completely
idealized, transformed. She became this ethereal,
spiritual figure in his art, almost like Dante's
Beatrice. The most famous example is Beata Beatrix.
She worked on for years after her death. So after
this trauma, he moves to Chain Walk in Chelsea,
number 16. That's right. And this is where his
life takes another turn towards increasing reclusiveness
and eccentricity. Chain Walk became this kind
of bizarre sanctuary. The stories about his zoo
there are legendary. They really are. He filled
the house with extravagant furniture, objet d
'art, and surrounded himself with this amazing
collection of exotic birds and animals. It sounds
quite surreal. Wombats seem to feature heavily.
He had a particular obsession with wombats. He
acquired at least two. The first one was called
Top. Apparently, Top was allowed to sleep on
the dining table, even in the centerpiece during
dinner parties. You're kidding! Seems not. Later,
he also bought a llama. And the most bizarre
story is about him training a toucan, which supposedly
wore a tiny cowboy hat, to ride the llama around
the dining room table. Okay, that's quite a mental
image. Was this just eccentricity or something
more? It feels like more, doesn't it? Perhaps
a way of creating a distracting, fantastical
world around himself, insulating himself from
grief, from the outside world, from his own growing
instability, maybe. And amidst all this strangeness,
he continues to paint these powerful, sensual
images of women. Which required new models, new
muses. Yes. The chain walk period is defined
by a new cast of muses, each seeming to embody
different facets of his artistic vision, that
tension between the physical and the spiritual.
Who were the key figures? Well, first there was
Fanny Cornforth. She'd modeled for him earlier
for Bocca Bazziata back in 1859, which was one
of the first paintings in this new sensual style.
And what did she represent for him? The sources
often describe her as the epitome of physical
eroticism. earthy, sensual, perhaps less idealized
than some of the others. She also modeled for
the 1867 version of Lady Lilith. Okay, so Fanny
represents the physical side. Who else? Then
there was Alexa Wilding, a very different type.
He apparently spotted her in the street, in the
Strand, in 1865. Just saw her and knew she had
the look he wanted. Exactly. He was struck by
her beauty, her auburn hair, and he did something
quite unusual. He hired her on an exclusive contract.
paid her a weekly wage specifically so that no
other artist could use her as a model. Really?
That's quite something. It shows how important
finding the right look was for him. And Weiling
sat for more of his finished paintings than any
other model. Think of the definitive Blessed
Damazel, or a sea spell. She seems to have represented
a more serene, perhaps more spiritualized beauty
for him. Did they have a close relationship?
Apparently quite a lasting, respectful one. She
remained loyal to his memory, even regularly
placing a wreath on his grave after he died.
She was the professional muse, you could say.
But the most intense, the most complex relationship
with a muse during this period was with Jane
Morris. Ah, Jane. Yes. William Morris's wife.
This relationship became all -consuming for Rossetti.
The sources say he was consumed and obsessed
by her in paint, poetry, and life. She became
the face of his later work, didn't she? Very
much so. He painted her again and again, glamorizing
her, transforming her into this sort of ethereal
goddess. Think of paintings like Proserpine.
Her unique look seemed to embody that mix of
melancholy, mystery, and sensuality he was aiming
for. And their personal relationship became very
close. Extremely close. It developed into a long
-lasting and very complicated liaison. They started
using Kelmscott Manor. the house the Morrises
and Rossetti rented together as a kind of private
retreat from 1869 onwards. Especially when William
Morris was away. Particularly when Morris was
away on his long trips to Iceland in 1871 and
1873. It was an intense, emotionally fraught
situation for everyone involved. So artistically,
he's producing these iconic, highly stylized
works. But then those exhumed poems get published
in 1870. And bang, instant scandal. What was
so scandalous about them? By today's standards.
By today's standards, probably not much. But
for Victorian sensibilities, they were shockingly
explicit. Especially the poem, Nuptial Sleep.
What was that about? It describes a couple lying
quietly together, falling asleep immediately
after sex. That level of physical intimacy, that
post -codal moment described in verse, was considered
deeply inappropriate, almost indecent for public
consumption. And this led to a major critical
attack. A ferocious one. Led by the critic, Robert
Buchanan. He wrote this scathing review, later
expanded into a pamphlet, titled The Fleshly
School of Poetry. The Fleshly School? That's
quite a label. It stuck. Buchanan basically accused
Rossetti and others, like Swinburne, of being
obsessed with physical sensations, of being immoral,
of corrupting poetry. And Rossetti took it incredibly
personally. He saw it as an attack on him as
a man, not just his work. Absolutely. He felt
Buchanan was deliberately targeting him. perhaps
motivated by professional jealousy or personal
animosity, the whole affair caused him immense
distress. Yet, ironically, out of the same period
comes what many consider his greatest literary
work. Yes, despite the controversy, or maybe
fueled by the same intensity, he produced the
sonnet sequence, The House of Life. which is
seen as his masterpiece in poetry. It really
is. It's this incredibly complex, ambitious cycle
of sonnets. It explores the whole trajectory
of an intimate relationship, the spiritual side,
the physical side, the joys, the sorrows, the
philosophical reflections. It perfectly embodies
his dual focus. And he had a famous phrase for
what a sonnet should be. He did. He called the
sonnet form a moment's monument, which is just
brilliant, isn't it? A moment's monument. Capturing
a fleeting feeling, an instant of intense emotion
or insight, permanent monumental form in the
14 lines of the sonnet. It's exactly what he
was trying to do in his paintings to capture
that intense singular moment. It's also worth
noting, just as a linguistic aside, he actually
coined a word we still use. He did. In his 1869
translation of a poem by François Villon, the
Ballade des Dames du Tonjadis, Rossetti came
up with the word yesteryear. It didn't exist
in English before him. Really? Yesteryear? That's
fascinating. It is, isn't it? Just another little
mark you left. So we have this period of intense
creativity, tangled relationships, public scandal.
It sounds like a pressure cooker. It absolutely
was. And the pressure, particularly from Buchanan's
savage attack on the Fleshly School, seems to
have been the final straw. It directly contributed
to a serious mental breakdown Rossetti suffered
in June 1872. A complete collapse. Pretty much.
He became deeply paranoid, suffered delusions.
He retreated again, this time to Kelmscott Manor.
But the sources say he spent much of his time
there in a haze of chloral and whiskey. Chloral?
What's that? Chloral hydrate. It was a sedative,
a hypnotic drug, quite commonly prescribed at
the time, but also highly addictive and dangerous.
He started taking it apparently to help with
insomnia and perhaps pain following a minor operation,
a botched procedure to remove a hydrosil. And
the whiskey? Chloral hydrate has an incredibly
bitter, unpleasant taste. So like many users
at the time, Rossetti started mixing it with
large amounts of whiskey to mask the taste, which
of course created its own problems. Alcohol psychosis,
the source has mentioned. Yes. The combination
was devastating. It destroyed his physical health
and worsened his mental state, fueling his paranoia.
There's that dark, tragic symmetry again, his
own decline, mirroring his wife Elizabeth's death
from a drug overdose, Laudanum in her case. Did
he ever really recover from this breakdown? Not
fully. He seems to have been fundamentally changed
by it. Yeah. He left Kelmscott rather abruptly
in 1874. There were tensions with Morris, partly
over the reorganization of Morris' decorative
arts firm. He went back to Chinois. And spent
his last years there. Yes, essentially as a recluse,
dominated by the drug addiction, poor health,
paranoia, a very sad end to such a vibrant life.
And he died quite young, didn't he? Only 53.
That's right. He died in 1882. Not at Chain Walk,
actually, but while staying at a friend's house
in Burshington -on -Sea in Kent, where he'd gone
hoping the sea air might help him recover somewhat.
The official cause was Braith's disease, kidney
failure. Which the chloral in whiskey wouldn't
have helped. Almost certainly exacerbated it
significantly. His body was just worn out. So
looking back at his whole career, how do we assess
his legacy? We have the early radical pre -Raphaelite
Rossetti and then the later symbolist Rossetti
of Chain Walk. It's left a slightly divided perception
of him, I think. His early work, especially the
drawings, is incredibly important technically.
You can see his originality, how he was pushing
against academic norms. But it's the later paintings
that everyone knows. Undeniably. Those lush,
intense images of women, Fanny Cornforth, Alexa
Wilding, Jane Morris, they are reproduced constantly.
And because they're so dominant, they've sometimes
led to this popular view of Rossetti as being
all about morbid and languorous sensuality. perhaps
overshadowing the innovation of his earlier PRB
phase. But serious critics saw his importance
beyond just those later images. Oh, absolutely.
Figures like Roger Fry, who was hugely influential
in promoting modern art in Britain, recognized
Rossetti's significance. Fry called him a key
forerunner of new ideas in English art, second
only perhaps to William Blake and his originality.
And Ellis Lowry, the painter, was a big collector
of Rossetti's work. He was. Obsessed with him,
apparently. And Lowry had this really insightful
take on the later female figures. He said they
were not real women, they were dreams. Dreams.
Yeah. Lowry felt these were images created after
Siddall's death, born out of Rossetti's grief,
his idealization, his psychological state. Not
straightforward portraits, but projections of
an inner world. Beyond painting, his influence
carried on. Definitely. His work was a huge touchstone
for the aesthetic movement, you know, the whole
art for art's sake idea, and for the symbolists
across Europe who were trying to paint moods,
ideas, inner states, rather than just external
reality. And his poetry inspired musicians, too.
Yes. quite significantly in the classical world.
Claude Debussy wrote his beautiful cantata La
Demoiselle Elue, based directly on Rossetti's
poem The Blessed Demoiselle. Ah, Debussy, that's
major. And the English composer Ralph Vaughan
Williams created a whole song cycle called The
House of Life, based on Rossetti's sonnets. It
includes one of his most famous songs, Silent
Noon. So his words lived on through music, but
the influence even stretches into more modern
pop culture, surprisingly. It does, which is
fascinating. You wouldn't necessarily expect
it. But for instance, the 90s grunge band Hole,
fronted by Courtney Love. Really? Hole? Yes.
Their big hit song, Celebrity Skin, directly
quotes a line from Rossetti's House of Life.
From the sonnet's superscription, actually. The
line is, Wow. My name is might have been. That's
pure Rossetti angst right there. Isn't it just?
And another one, David Bowie. He specifically
said that the album cover for The Man Who Sold
the World, the UK version where he's lounging
in that dress. The infamous dress cover. Exactly.
Yeah. Bowie described it as a direct parody of
a Rossetti painting. He was tapping into that
same languid, androgynous, stylized sensuality
that Rossetti pioneered in his later work. That's
amazing. From medieval manuscripts to David Bowie,
quite a reach. It shows the enduring power of
the aesthetic he created, doesn't it? So summing
up this deep dive, what really stands out is
this constant tension in Rossetti's life and
work. He starts with these radical ideals, truth
to nature, moral reform through realism with
the PRB. Yes, that initial manifesto was so clear.
But as we've seen, whether it was the critical
rejection or personal tragedy or just his own
inclinations, he ultimately retreated from that
kind of realism. Into a much more personal, symbolic
world. Exactly. He swapped the gritty detail
of the street for these ethereal imagined muses,
these intense inner landscapes, and got caught
up in literary controversy along the way. But
in doing that, he created something new, this
powerful, psychologically charged vision of beauty,
especially female beauty. His great achievement
seems to be that refusal to choose between painting
and poetry. And the way he led that artistic
revolt, even if he later diverged from its original
path, he really did define a new kind of aesthetic.
He absolutely did. He forged this incredibly
influential path, bridging words and images,
medievalism, and a kind of modern sensibility.
But as we've seen, that intense pursuit of beauty,
that constant negotiation between the ideal and
the real, it came at a huge personal cost. Stability,
peace. They seem to have alluded him. It connects
back to how he used art almost to manage his
emotions, doesn't it? taking his dead wife, Elizabeth
Sittle, and making her into this spiritual icon
like Beatrice. While at the very same time, painting
other women, like Fanny Cornforth or Jane Morris,
with this incredibly potent, complex, sometimes
troubling sensuality. It leaves us with a really
interesting question, maybe for you, the listener,
to think about. Rossetti spent his life trying
to capture intense feeling, these moments, monuments,
in both art and poetry. He wrestled constantly
with the spiritual and the physical. So the question
is, Can art ever truly reconcile those two things,
the aspirations of the soul and the demands,
the realities of the body? He certainly tried.
But how successful was he really? And maybe more
importantly, how should we view the work of an
artist like Rossetti, whose most powerful creations
seem so deeply, inextricably linked to his own
personal turmoil and conflicts? It's a fascinating,
complex legacy to unravel.