WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.819 Okay, let's get into it. Today we are taking 00:00:02.819 --> 00:00:06.419 a deep dive into the, well, the incredibly complex 00:00:06.419 --> 00:00:10.039 and fascinating world of Gabriel Charles Dante 00:00:10.039 --> 00:00:12.679 Rossetti. Even the name tells you something, 00:00:12.740 --> 00:00:14.599 doesn't it? It really does. It's like a statement 00:00:14.599 --> 00:00:18.199 of intent. And his life, well, it's a story of 00:00:18.199 --> 00:00:20.160 duality, really. If you want to understand the 00:00:20.160 --> 00:00:22.320 Victorian art world, you kind of have to grapple 00:00:22.320 --> 00:00:24.780 with Rossetti. He seems to embody so many contradictions. 00:00:24.800 --> 00:00:27.760 Exactly. He's this English poet and artist, but 00:00:27.760 --> 00:00:30.730 he's also... deeply, intensely Italian in his 00:00:30.730 --> 00:00:33.229 outlook, his romanticism. He kicks off his career 00:00:33.229 --> 00:00:37.609 as this cultural rebel trying to bring moral 00:00:37.609 --> 00:00:40.090 reform to art. Right. The whole pre -Raphaelite 00:00:40.090 --> 00:00:43.130 thing. Yes. But then later in life, he shifts 00:00:43.130 --> 00:00:45.890 into this figure that, well, the sources describe 00:00:45.890 --> 00:00:48.469 pretty dramatically as living a life of languorous 00:00:48.469 --> 00:00:51.450 sensuality. And that journey from the revolutionary 00:00:51.450 --> 00:00:56.740 idealist to the... almost decadent figure. That's 00:00:56.740 --> 00:00:59.060 the core of what we need to explore today. Absolutely. 00:00:59.079 --> 00:01:01.119 It's the central narrative. He was born in 1828. 00:01:01.219 --> 00:01:03.100 Right from the start, people point to his family 00:01:03.100 --> 00:01:05.239 background. It's seen as key to understanding 00:01:05.239 --> 00:01:08.260 him. His father was Gabriele Rossetti, the Italian 00:01:08.260 --> 00:01:11.700 scholar. Precisely. An Italian scholar, a political 00:01:11.700 --> 00:01:14.840 emigre, no less. And his mother had Tuscan and 00:01:14.840 --> 00:01:19.650 Greek heritage. So this mix. Contemporaries often 00:01:19.650 --> 00:01:21.709 talked about it, maybe a bit simplistically, 00:01:21.810 --> 00:01:25.510 as, you know, warm southern blood. Ah, that old 00:01:25.510 --> 00:01:28.430 trope. Right. But it was explicitly cited as 00:01:28.430 --> 00:01:31.189 giving him and his siblings, including, of course, 00:01:31.269 --> 00:01:34.549 the famous poet Christina Rossetti, their intense 00:01:34.549 --> 00:01:37.329 nature and wealth of emotion. And this intensity 00:01:37.329 --> 00:01:39.689 wasn't just personality. It was the driving force 00:01:39.689 --> 00:01:42.700 behind his art. It seems so. It fueled the Pre 00:01:42.700 --> 00:01:44.560 -Raphaelite Brotherhood's revolutionary beginnings, 00:01:44.859 --> 00:01:47.599 gave his poetry that emotional weight, and maybe 00:01:47.599 --> 00:01:50.260 tragically, also played a part in his later decline. 00:01:50.540 --> 00:01:52.500 One thing that strikes me immediately is how 00:01:52.500 --> 00:01:54.620 he refused to separate his two main talents. 00:01:54.939 --> 00:01:57.280 Painting and poetry seem completely intertwined 00:01:57.280 --> 00:01:59.400 for him. Oh, completely. That's maybe the crucial 00:01:59.400 --> 00:02:01.280 takeaway for anyone trying to understand Rossetti. 00:02:01.599 --> 00:02:04.260 Poetry and image just belong together in his 00:02:04.260 --> 00:02:06.359 world. He didn't just illustrate poems, did he? 00:02:06.379 --> 00:02:09.550 It was more complex than that. Much more. He'd 00:02:09.550 --> 00:02:11.729 write sonnets specifically for his paintings. 00:02:12.250 --> 00:02:14.229 Think of the verses for the Girlhood of Mary 00:02:14.229 --> 00:02:16.389 Virgin. And then he'd turn around and create 00:02:16.389 --> 00:02:19.750 paintings to illustrate poems. His own, his sister's, 00:02:19.770 --> 00:02:22.629 others. He called them... Double works. Double 00:02:22.629 --> 00:02:24.569 works. I like that. Neither art form is just 00:02:24.569 --> 00:02:26.629 serving the other. Exactly. They're in dialogue, 00:02:26.830 --> 00:02:28.669 enhancing each other. Okay, so let's go back 00:02:28.669 --> 00:02:31.430 to the beginning. He starts life known as Gabriel. 00:02:31.750 --> 00:02:34.189 Yes, just Gabriel to the family. But when he 00:02:34.189 --> 00:02:36.710 starts publishing, putting his work out there, 00:02:36.849 --> 00:02:40.909 he deliberately puts Dante first. It's a powerful 00:02:40.909 --> 00:02:43.930 signal, isn't it? A clear nod to Dante Alighieri. 00:02:44.150 --> 00:02:46.270 It tells you straight away about his passion 00:02:46.270 --> 00:02:48.770 for medieval Italy, for its art and its poetry. 00:02:48.889 --> 00:02:50.770 He's basically branding himself from the outset. 00:02:51.199 --> 00:02:53.759 Pretty much. And like his siblings, he had this 00:02:53.759 --> 00:02:56.199 dual ambition right from the start, poet and 00:02:56.199 --> 00:02:58.840 painter. You can trace his training King's College 00:02:58.840 --> 00:03:01.599 School, then Henry Sass's Drawing Academy for 00:03:01.599 --> 00:03:04.699 a few years. Around 1841 to 45. That's right. 00:03:04.800 --> 00:03:08.159 Then a brief, apparently rather impatient spell 00:03:08.159 --> 00:03:11.159 at the Royal Academy Schools. But maybe the most 00:03:11.159 --> 00:03:14.219 important connection was studying sort of informally 00:03:14.219 --> 00:03:17.900 under Ford Maddox Brown. Ah, Maddox Brown, a 00:03:17.900 --> 00:03:20.520 key figure. Absolutely. They stayed incredibly 00:03:20.520 --> 00:03:23.819 close, professionally and personally, for his 00:03:23.819 --> 00:03:26.099 whole life. A really vital relationship. But 00:03:26.099 --> 00:03:27.659 the big bang, the moment that really shook things 00:03:27.659 --> 00:03:31.000 up, comes in 1848. Which feels appropriate, given 00:03:31.000 --> 00:03:32.500 all the revolutions happening elsewhere that 00:03:32.500 --> 00:03:34.919 year. It does feel fitting. This is the birth 00:03:34.919 --> 00:03:36.979 of the Pre -Raphaelite Brotherhood, the PRB. 00:03:37.139 --> 00:03:40.080 And it starts almost by chance, in a way. How 00:03:40.080 --> 00:03:42.759 so? Well, Rossetti saw a painting by William 00:03:42.759 --> 00:03:45.860 Holman Hunt. It was the Eve of St. Agnes. based 00:03:45.860 --> 00:03:48.060 on the Keats poem. And he saw something in it. 00:03:48.139 --> 00:03:52.139 He saw kindred spirit, a shared sense of radical 00:03:52.139 --> 00:03:55.259 idealism, a similar artistic and literary vision. 00:03:55.419 --> 00:03:58.180 So he sought Hunt out. And then very quickly, 00:03:58.219 --> 00:04:00.960 the core trio came together. Rossetti, Hunt, 00:04:01.099 --> 00:04:03.400 and John Everett Millay. And this wasn't just, 00:04:03.479 --> 00:04:05.199 you know, three guys deciding to paint together. 00:04:05.360 --> 00:04:07.479 This was a movement. Oh, absolutely. They had 00:04:07.479 --> 00:04:09.780 a manifesto. They wanted nothing less than a 00:04:09.780 --> 00:04:12.219 complete reform of English art. And the name 00:04:12.219 --> 00:04:14.780 itself, Pre -Raphaelite, tells you their target. 00:04:15.069 --> 00:04:16.870 They were rejecting everything that came after 00:04:16.870 --> 00:04:19.629 Raphael and Michelangelo. Exactly. They saw two 00:04:19.629 --> 00:04:21.990 major problems with the art of their time. First, 00:04:22.110 --> 00:04:24.029 what they called the mechanistic approach of 00:04:24.029 --> 00:04:26.310 the mannerists, the artists who followed Raphael. 00:04:26.389 --> 00:04:28.910 They felt it had become all about rigid rules, 00:04:29.250 --> 00:04:33.129 idealized poses, predictable stuff, no real feeling 00:04:33.129 --> 00:04:35.569 or observation. Okay, so reject the mannerists. 00:04:35.769 --> 00:04:38.310 And second... They rejected the whole system 00:04:38.310 --> 00:04:40.790 of academic training standardized by Sir Joshua 00:04:40.790 --> 00:04:43.389 Reynolds back in the 18th century. You know, 00:04:43.389 --> 00:04:46.529 the focus on grand, generalized, noble themes 00:04:46.529 --> 00:04:48.689 above everything else. They basically thought 00:04:48.689 --> 00:04:51.970 art had become stuffy, academic, and completely 00:04:51.970 --> 00:04:54.149 out of touch with reality. So if that's what 00:04:54.149 --> 00:04:55.529 they were against, what were they for? What did 00:04:55.529 --> 00:04:57.970 this pre -Raphaelite truth actually look like? 00:04:58.209 --> 00:05:01.329 It was a call for, well, a kind of radical honesty 00:05:01.329 --> 00:05:04.069 in art. They wanted to go back to the art before 00:05:04.069 --> 00:05:06.550 Raphael, the early Italian Quattrocento, the 00:05:06.550 --> 00:05:08.949 15th century, and also Flemish art. They saw 00:05:08.949 --> 00:05:11.230 real spiritual depth and incredible technical 00:05:11.230 --> 00:05:13.430 skill there. What characterized that style for 00:05:13.430 --> 00:05:16.550 them? Things like abundant detail, intense colors 00:05:16.550 --> 00:05:19.149 in complex compositions, and a fierce commitment 00:05:19.149 --> 00:05:21.810 to realism. They were heavily influenced by the 00:05:21.810 --> 00:05:24.310 critic John Ruskin, who became a major champion 00:05:24.310 --> 00:05:26.910 for them. Ruskin was huge back then. Immensely 00:05:26.910 --> 00:05:29.610 influential. And Ruskin really emphasized their 00:05:29.610 --> 00:05:32.519 methods. Every background painted to the last 00:05:32.519 --> 00:05:35.480 touch in the open air, he said. And maybe most 00:05:35.480 --> 00:05:37.819 radical for the time, every figure had to be 00:05:37.819 --> 00:05:40.639 a true portrait of some living person. No more 00:05:40.639 --> 00:05:43.920 idealized generic saints or heroes. Precisely. 00:05:43.920 --> 00:05:46.439 And that's where Rossetti immediately got into 00:05:46.439 --> 00:05:49.180 hot water. using real contemporary people for 00:05:49.180 --> 00:05:51.259 sacred figures. With his first big paintings. 00:05:51.519 --> 00:05:54.019 Yes, straight away. The Girlhood of Mary Virgin 00:05:54.019 --> 00:05:57.500 in 1849, and then, even more controversially, 00:05:57.600 --> 00:06:00.439 Ecce and Scylla Domini in 1850, the Annunciation 00:06:00.439 --> 00:06:02.699 scene. What was so shocking about them? He used 00:06:02.699 --> 00:06:04.740 this intense realism to show the Virgin Mary 00:06:04.740 --> 00:06:07.160 not as some distant, ethereal queen of heaven, 00:06:07.279 --> 00:06:10.899 but as a recognizable teenage girl. Maybe a bit 00:06:10.899 --> 00:06:12.920 awkward, looking quite apprehensive, reacting 00:06:12.920 --> 00:06:15.860 to this overwhelming event. It completely defied 00:06:15.860 --> 00:06:18.259 Victorian expectations of religious art. And 00:06:18.259 --> 00:06:20.079 his technique was unconventional too, right? 00:06:20.160 --> 00:06:22.120 He wasn't just painting like everyone else. Not 00:06:22.120 --> 00:06:24.420 at all. That's a really key point. William Bell 00:06:24.420 --> 00:06:27.139 Scott, who knew him well. watched him work and 00:06:27.139 --> 00:06:29.819 noted how different it was. He wasn't using the 00:06:29.819 --> 00:06:32.540 standard heavy oil techniques. What did he do 00:06:32.540 --> 00:06:35.060 instead? He used watercolor brushes, apparently, 00:06:35.279 --> 00:06:38.339 on canvas that he'd primed incredibly white and 00:06:38.339 --> 00:06:40.920 smooth, almost like cardboard. Then he'd apply 00:06:40.920 --> 00:06:43.699 the oil paint in thin, transparent layers, almost 00:06:43.699 --> 00:06:46.519 like glazes, over this brilliant white ground. 00:06:46.860 --> 00:06:51.449 Why? What was the effect? Luminosity. Intense, 00:06:51.449 --> 00:06:53.769 glowing color. Scott said it was done purely 00:06:53.769 --> 00:06:55.889 from the aesthetic motive, not following any 00:06:55.889 --> 00:06:58.589 orthodox rules. It immediately marked him as 00:06:58.589 --> 00:07:00.990 an innovator, an outsider. So you've got radical 00:07:00.990 --> 00:07:03.089 subject matter, radical techniques. Did it go 00:07:03.089 --> 00:07:05.329 down well when Ece and Saladomini was shown? 00:07:05.589 --> 00:07:07.529 It absolutely did not. The reaction was savage, 00:07:07.689 --> 00:07:11.389 widespread, hostile. The sources call it increasingly 00:07:11.389 --> 00:07:13.670 hysterical. It was part of a general critical 00:07:13.670 --> 00:07:16.029 onslaught against the PRB that year. What were 00:07:16.029 --> 00:07:19.730 the criticisms? Bad taste, definitely. Blasphemy 00:07:19.730 --> 00:07:22.529 was thrown around. And, ironically, given their 00:07:22.529 --> 00:07:25.430 focus on detail, technical incompetence, they 00:07:25.430 --> 00:07:27.189 just didn't look like proper paintings to the 00:07:27.189 --> 00:07:29.069 establishment. And this had a lasting impact 00:07:29.069 --> 00:07:32.350 on Rossetti. Huge. Career -changing. He basically 00:07:32.350 --> 00:07:34.750 recoiled from public exhibition for his major 00:07:34.750 --> 00:07:37.170 oil paintings after that. He couldn't face that 00:07:37.170 --> 00:07:39.689 kind of attack again. Instead, he turned towards 00:07:39.689 --> 00:07:43.110 smaller watercolors, drawings, things he could 00:07:43.110 --> 00:07:45.069 sell privately to patrons who understood what 00:07:45.069 --> 00:07:47.490 he was doing. It was a major pivot. OK, so the 00:07:47.490 --> 00:07:51.310 big public splash in oils ends badly. He retreats. 00:07:51.370 --> 00:07:53.529 And where does he retreat to? It seems like he 00:07:53.529 --> 00:07:55.730 leans right into the Dante part of his name. 00:07:55.829 --> 00:07:59.209 He really does. He throws himself into medievalism, 00:07:59.209 --> 00:08:02.029 into literature. That becomes his refuge and 00:08:02.029 --> 00:08:04.949 actually a source of considerable success. This 00:08:04.949 --> 00:08:06.990 is when he starts his translation work. Yes. 00:08:07.110 --> 00:08:09.329 He gets deeply involved in translating medieval 00:08:09.329 --> 00:08:12.189 Italian poetry. His most famous work from this 00:08:12.189 --> 00:08:14.649 time is his translation of Dante Alighieri's 00:08:14.649 --> 00:08:16.970 La Vita Nuova. Which was published later. Published 00:08:16.970 --> 00:08:20.170 in 1861, initially as the Early Italian Poets, 00:08:20.189 --> 00:08:22.930 though was later retitled Dante and His Circle. 00:08:23.370 --> 00:08:26.269 This work really cemented his reputation, not 00:08:26.269 --> 00:08:28.829 just as a painter, but as a serious literary 00:08:28.829 --> 00:08:31.730 figure. He became this kind of bridge connecting 00:08:31.730 --> 00:08:33.929 Victorian England back to the world of Italian 00:08:33.929 --> 00:08:36.570 romance. And this period, the 1850s, is also 00:08:36.570 --> 00:08:39.309 when Elizabeth Siddle enters his life. Ah, Siddle. 00:08:39.559 --> 00:08:42.679 yes absolutely pivotal they met around 1850 she 00:08:42.679 --> 00:08:44.960 was modeling for various prb artists initially 00:08:44.960 --> 00:08:47.480 but rossetti became completely captivated by 00:08:47.480 --> 00:08:49.960 her utterly for the next decade she became everything 00:08:49.960 --> 00:08:52.759 to him his primary muse definitely but also his 00:08:52.759 --> 00:08:55.539 pupil he taught her to draw and paint quite seriously 00:08:55.539 --> 00:08:58.379 his great passion and eventually in 1860 his 00:08:58.379 --> 00:09:01.440 wife Their relationship, which was incredibly 00:09:01.440 --> 00:09:03.899 intense and, well, complicated, really underpins 00:09:03.899 --> 00:09:06.500 so much of his art from this decade. So his art 00:09:06.500 --> 00:09:08.919 in the 50s reflects this turn towards literature 00:09:08.919 --> 00:09:11.320 and medieval themes. Absolutely. It's steeped 00:09:11.320 --> 00:09:13.960 in Dante, obviously, but also hugely inspired 00:09:13.960 --> 00:09:15.940 by Sir Thomas Mallory's Le Morte d 'Arthur, the 00:09:15.940 --> 00:09:17.860 King Arthur stories. And technically, since he 00:09:17.860 --> 00:09:20.220 was avoiding big oil paintings, he innovated 00:09:20.220 --> 00:09:23.019 in watercolor. He did. He developed this really 00:09:23.019 --> 00:09:26.000 distinctive watercolor technique. Instead of 00:09:26.000 --> 00:09:29.220 thin washes, he used thick... dense pigments 00:09:29.220 --> 00:09:32.019 mixed with gum arabic white gum to make the paint 00:09:32.019 --> 00:09:35.019 richer more opaque almost like oil paint in its 00:09:35.019 --> 00:09:38.179 intensity but with a unique texture he was deliberately 00:09:38.179 --> 00:09:41.399 trying to mimic the look of medieval illuminated 00:09:41.399 --> 00:09:43.820 manuscripts. You know, those incredibly rich, 00:09:44.000 --> 00:09:46.940 jewel -like miniature paintings in old books. 00:09:47.240 --> 00:09:49.159 Ah, right. That makes sense with the medieval 00:09:49.159 --> 00:09:51.340 subjects. It was a perfect match aesthetically. 00:09:51.460 --> 00:09:54.179 Now, we should mention he did try one major modern 00:09:54.179 --> 00:09:57.039 life subject, sticking to the original PRB idea, 00:09:57.259 --> 00:10:00.279 the painting called Found. He started it around 00:10:00.279 --> 00:10:03.379 1853. What was that about? It depicted a farmer 00:10:03.379 --> 00:10:06.000 finding his former sweetheart, now a prostitute, 00:10:06.159 --> 00:10:08.519 collapsed in the street in London. A fallen woman 00:10:08.519 --> 00:10:11.080 theme. But he never finished it. He kept coming 00:10:11.080 --> 00:10:13.600 back to it. But ultimately, he just gravitated 00:10:13.600 --> 00:10:16.279 much more strongly towards symbolic mythological 00:10:16.279 --> 00:10:19.480 medieval imagery. The pull was too strong. And 00:10:19.480 --> 00:10:21.460 it's during this phase that his influence starts 00:10:21.460 --> 00:10:23.340 to really spread, attracting younger artists. 00:10:23.679 --> 00:10:27.200 Yes, significantly. His focus on Arthurian legends 00:10:27.200 --> 00:10:31.100 and that intense medieval style really resonated 00:10:31.100 --> 00:10:33.960 with William Morris and Edward Burne -Jones. 00:10:34.100 --> 00:10:37.340 They sought him out. They did, around 1856. They 00:10:37.340 --> 00:10:40.000 were students at Oxford. Hugely inspired by him, 00:10:40.179 --> 00:10:42.779 they basically became his disciples. Rossetti 00:10:42.779 --> 00:10:44.820 took them under his wing. And this leads to the 00:10:44.820 --> 00:10:48.240 Oxford Union Project. Exactly. The famous, or 00:10:48.240 --> 00:10:52.220 maybe infamous, Oxford Union murals. Rossetti 00:10:52.220 --> 00:10:54.179 got the commission to decorate the debating hall, 00:10:54.360 --> 00:10:57.059 and he recruited Morris, Brun Jones, and a few 00:10:57.059 --> 00:11:00.820 others to paint scenes from Le Morte d 'Or. Infamous 00:11:00.820 --> 00:11:02.879 because they didn't last very long. Precisely. 00:11:03.419 --> 00:11:05.220 Technically, it was a bit of a mess. They painted 00:11:05.220 --> 00:11:07.100 directly onto the wall without proper preparation, 00:11:07.399 --> 00:11:09.480 trying a sort of fresco technique that they didn't 00:11:09.480 --> 00:11:11.500 fully understand. The paint started fading and 00:11:11.500 --> 00:11:13.399 flaking almost immediately. You can barely see 00:11:13.399 --> 00:11:16.639 them now. They're described as barely decipherable. 00:11:16.720 --> 00:11:19.720 A noble failure, perhaps. But the real legacy 00:11:19.720 --> 00:11:21.399 of that project wasn't the murals themselves. 00:11:21.899 --> 00:11:24.100 What was it, then? It was who Rossetti found 00:11:24.100 --> 00:11:27.039 to model for the paintings. He recruited two 00:11:27.039 --> 00:11:31.000 sisters, Bessie and Jane Burton. And Jane, with 00:11:31.000 --> 00:11:34.320 her really striking, unconventional looks, she 00:11:34.320 --> 00:11:37.159 became a major focus for Rossetti. And she later 00:11:37.159 --> 00:11:41.019 married William Morris. She did in 1859, which, 00:11:41.080 --> 00:11:44.200 well, set up a very complex and emotionally charged 00:11:44.200 --> 00:11:46.799 dynamic between Rossetti, Morris, and Jane that 00:11:46.799 --> 00:11:49.100 lasted for the rest of their lives. Thinking 00:11:49.100 --> 00:11:51.059 bigger picture, Rossetti wasn't just interested 00:11:51.059 --> 00:11:53.039 in painting and poetry, but the whole aesthetic 00:11:53.039 --> 00:11:56.159 package. even book design. Yes, he was very critical 00:11:56.159 --> 00:11:58.139 of standard Victorian book production, all that 00:11:58.139 --> 00:12:00.879 gaudy ornamentation, as he called it. He wanted 00:12:00.879 --> 00:12:03.279 books themselves to be beautiful objects with 00:12:03.279 --> 00:12:05.840 well -designed bindings and, crucially, illustrations 00:12:05.840 --> 00:12:08.480 that were artworks in their own right. He was 00:12:08.480 --> 00:12:10.519 ahead of his time there, anticipating the arts 00:12:10.519 --> 00:12:12.659 and crafts movement. Definitely a precursor. 00:12:12.700 --> 00:12:14.620 Yeah. And his big chance to influence this came 00:12:14.620 --> 00:12:17.320 with the mocks in Tennyson. The 1857 edition 00:12:17.320 --> 00:12:20.159 of Tennyson's poems. That's the one. A really 00:12:20.159 --> 00:12:22.899 ambitious project. The publisher, Edward Moxon, 00:12:23.059 --> 00:12:25.840 recruited Rossetti, Hunt, and Millais, the original 00:12:25.840 --> 00:12:28.740 PRB stars, to illustrate it. It became a landmark 00:12:28.740 --> 00:12:31.159 in the history of illustration. And Rossetti 00:12:31.159 --> 00:12:33.799 had a very specific idea about what illustrations 00:12:33.799 --> 00:12:36.259 should do. He didn't just want them to copy the 00:12:36.259 --> 00:12:38.879 text. Not at all. He had a revolutionary view. 00:12:39.080 --> 00:12:41.919 He wrote about it in a letter in 1855. He said 00:12:41.919 --> 00:12:45.379 he wanted to illustrate poems where one can allegorize 00:12:45.379 --> 00:12:47.840 on one's own hook, without killing for oneself 00:12:47.840 --> 00:12:51.460 and everyone, a distinct idea of the poets. allegorize 00:12:51.460 --> 00:12:53.480 on one's own hook. What does that mean exactly? 00:12:53.899 --> 00:12:57.059 It means he saw the illustrations not just as 00:12:57.059 --> 00:13:00.120 reflections of the text, but as independent artworks 00:13:00.120 --> 00:13:02.399 inspired by the text. They were like independent 00:13:02.399 --> 00:13:05.120 subject paintings placed within the book. They 00:13:05.120 --> 00:13:07.159 could offer their own interpretation, add layers 00:13:07.159 --> 00:13:09.340 of meaning, expand the poem's possibilities. 00:13:09.779 --> 00:13:12.059 So the illustrator becomes almost a co -creator 00:13:12.059 --> 00:13:14.200 with the poet. Exactly. It elevates the status 00:13:14.200 --> 00:13:17.230 of illustration enormously. hugely influential 00:13:17.230 --> 00:13:19.490 for later artists. Now let's touch on the religious 00:13:19.490 --> 00:13:21.909 aspect again. We know he loved medieval themes, 00:13:22.070 --> 00:13:24.370 and this coincided with the Anglo -Catholic revival, 00:13:24.590 --> 00:13:27.370 the Tractarian movement. Yes, the Oxford movement. 00:13:27.809 --> 00:13:30.570 Starting around 1833, it was all about bringing 00:13:30.570 --> 00:13:33.529 back more ritual, symbolism, a more Catholic 00:13:33.529 --> 00:13:36.669 feel, into the Church of England. This definitely 00:13:36.669 --> 00:13:39.049 fed into Rossetti's aesthetic interests in the 00:13:39.049 --> 00:13:42.450 late 40s and early 50s. He loved the visual richness, 00:13:42.690 --> 00:13:45.309 the sense of ancient tradition. And you can see 00:13:45.309 --> 00:13:47.809 that in his early work. Clearly. In The Girlhood 00:13:47.809 --> 00:13:49.970 of Mary Virgin, for example, there are details 00:13:49.970 --> 00:13:52.070 like the little altar with flowers, which looks 00:13:52.070 --> 00:13:54.929 very Catholic. And the subject itself, Mary sewing 00:13:54.929 --> 00:13:57.950 a red altar cloth, directly connects to the Tractarian 00:13:57.950 --> 00:14:00.429 emphasis on women doing traditional church embroidery. 00:14:01.210 --> 00:14:04.049 Remember, the PRB's original aim included moral 00:14:04.049 --> 00:14:06.789 reform, often expressed through this kind of 00:14:06.789 --> 00:14:09.019 religious sincerity. But here's the paradox, 00:14:09.179 --> 00:14:11.240 isn't it? He uses all this religious imagery, 00:14:11.519 --> 00:14:14.159 biblical language. Think of the Blessed Demizel 00:14:14.159 --> 00:14:17.500 or his poem, Avyet, personally. Personally, he 00:14:17.500 --> 00:14:20.240 wasn't conventionally religious at all. His brother, 00:14:20.379 --> 00:14:22.899 William Michael, who knew him best, stated quite 00:14:22.899 --> 00:14:25.500 clearly that Dante Gabriel professed no religious 00:14:25.500 --> 00:14:27.460 faith. Apparently, he only went to church very 00:14:27.460 --> 00:14:29.379 occasionally. So why use all the religious themes? 00:14:29.679 --> 00:14:50.179 For their power. That feels very Rossetti. Using 00:14:50.179 --> 00:14:52.320 the form without necessarily buying into the 00:14:52.320 --> 00:14:54.659 content. It's that consistent duality again, 00:14:54.740 --> 00:14:57.500 isn't it? Right. Let's move into the 1860s because 00:14:57.500 --> 00:14:59.460 this seems to be where everything shifts dramatically 00:14:59.460 --> 00:15:02.000 again. He's married Elizabeth Siddle and he goes 00:15:02.000 --> 00:15:04.419 back to oil painting. He does. But it's a completely 00:15:04.419 --> 00:15:07.399 different kind of oil painting. He totally abandons 00:15:07.399 --> 00:15:11.059 that detailed, intricate PRB style. So what's 00:15:11.059 --> 00:15:13.460 the new style like? It's the style most people 00:15:13.460 --> 00:15:16.620 probably associate with Rossetti now. These powerful 00:15:16.620 --> 00:15:19.179 close -up images of women in flat pictorial spaces 00:15:19.179 --> 00:15:23.080 characterized by dense color. Very sensual. Very 00:15:23.080 --> 00:15:24.980 intense. And where is he looking for inspiration 00:15:24.980 --> 00:15:27.559 now, if not the early Italians? He shifts his 00:15:27.559 --> 00:15:29.919 gaze forward to the high Renaissance masters. 00:15:30.259 --> 00:15:33.600 People like Titian, Veronese. He's drawn to their 00:15:33.600 --> 00:15:36.299 rich colors, their textures, their portrayal 00:15:36.299 --> 00:15:39.679 of opulent beauty. It's a much more, well, fleshy 00:15:39.679 --> 00:15:42.100 aesthetic. And this style had a big impact later 00:15:42.100 --> 00:15:44.559 on. Huge. It became a major influence on the 00:15:44.559 --> 00:15:46.240 development of the European symbolist movement 00:15:46.240 --> 00:15:49.059 towards the end of the century. They love that 00:15:49.059 --> 00:15:52.110 intense... mysterious, psychologically charged 00:15:52.110 --> 00:15:54.870 feel. But this artistic transformation happens 00:15:54.870 --> 00:15:57.809 alongside immense personal tragedy. The death 00:15:57.809 --> 00:16:00.990 of Elizabeth Siddle in 1862. Yes, it's impossible 00:16:00.990 --> 00:16:03.330 to separate the two. Her death was absolutely 00:16:03.330 --> 00:16:05.590 devastating for him. She died from an overdose 00:16:05.590 --> 00:16:08.009 of laudanum, which was an opium tincture widely 00:16:08.009 --> 00:16:10.929 used then. And it was suspected suicide. Highly 00:16:10.929 --> 00:16:13.230 suspected, yes. Especially as it came shortly 00:16:13.230 --> 00:16:15.669 after she had delivered a stillborn child. Rossetti 00:16:15.669 --> 00:16:18.470 was overwhelmed by grief and perhaps guilt. Which 00:16:18.470 --> 00:16:21.389 led to that incredibly famous, almost gothic 00:16:21.389 --> 00:16:24.490 gesture. The burial of the poems, yes. In a kind 00:16:24.490 --> 00:16:27.070 of dramatic, grief -stricken impulse, he took 00:16:27.070 --> 00:16:29.190 the only manuscript of many of his unpublished 00:16:29.190 --> 00:16:31.710 poems and placed it in the coffin with Elizabeth 00:16:31.710 --> 00:16:34.309 before she was buried at Highgate Cemetery. But 00:16:34.309 --> 00:16:36.330 that wasn't the end of the story for those poems. 00:16:36.490 --> 00:16:39.210 No, it wasn't. Years passed, but friends and 00:16:39.210 --> 00:16:41.879 his agent kept urging him to retrieve them. They 00:16:41.879 --> 00:16:43.899 argued the poems were too important to be lost 00:16:43.899 --> 00:16:46.440 forever. And eventually he agreed. Reluctantly, 00:16:46.460 --> 00:16:50.059 yes. In 1869, he gave permission for the coffin 00:16:50.059 --> 00:16:53.639 to be exhumed, secretly, at night. The manuscript 00:16:53.639 --> 00:16:56.159 was recovered, apparently slightly damaged, but 00:16:56.159 --> 00:16:58.879 legible. And this led to their publication of 00:16:58.879 --> 00:17:02.240 the controversial 1870 volume. Wow. And artistically, 00:17:02.340 --> 00:17:04.859 how did he deal with her death? Did he stop painting 00:17:04.859 --> 00:17:07.660 her? Quite the opposite, in a way. He continued 00:17:07.660 --> 00:17:09.640 to paint her, but her image became completely 00:17:09.640 --> 00:17:13.460 idealized, transformed. She became this ethereal, 00:17:13.480 --> 00:17:16.140 spiritual figure in his art, almost like Dante's 00:17:16.140 --> 00:17:19.059 Beatrice. The most famous example is Beata Beatrix. 00:17:19.160 --> 00:17:21.900 She worked on for years after her death. So after 00:17:21.900 --> 00:17:24.220 this trauma, he moves to Chain Walk in Chelsea, 00:17:24.460 --> 00:17:26.559 number 16. That's right. And this is where his 00:17:26.559 --> 00:17:28.980 life takes another turn towards increasing reclusiveness 00:17:28.980 --> 00:17:31.500 and eccentricity. Chain Walk became this kind 00:17:31.500 --> 00:17:34.220 of bizarre sanctuary. The stories about his zoo 00:17:34.220 --> 00:17:37.000 there are legendary. They really are. He filled 00:17:37.000 --> 00:17:39.539 the house with extravagant furniture, objet d 00:17:39.539 --> 00:17:42.079 'art, and surrounded himself with this amazing 00:17:42.079 --> 00:17:45.460 collection of exotic birds and animals. It sounds 00:17:45.460 --> 00:17:48.039 quite surreal. Wombats seem to feature heavily. 00:17:48.380 --> 00:17:51.059 He had a particular obsession with wombats. He 00:17:51.059 --> 00:17:53.279 acquired at least two. The first one was called 00:17:53.279 --> 00:17:56.200 Top. Apparently, Top was allowed to sleep on 00:17:56.200 --> 00:17:58.059 the dining table, even in the centerpiece during 00:17:58.059 --> 00:18:01.539 dinner parties. You're kidding! Seems not. Later, 00:18:01.660 --> 00:18:04.559 he also bought a llama. And the most bizarre 00:18:04.559 --> 00:18:07.660 story is about him training a toucan, which supposedly 00:18:07.660 --> 00:18:10.599 wore a tiny cowboy hat, to ride the llama around 00:18:10.599 --> 00:18:13.019 the dining room table. Okay, that's quite a mental 00:18:13.019 --> 00:18:15.420 image. Was this just eccentricity or something 00:18:15.420 --> 00:18:17.519 more? It feels like more, doesn't it? Perhaps 00:18:17.519 --> 00:18:20.000 a way of creating a distracting, fantastical 00:18:20.000 --> 00:18:22.799 world around himself, insulating himself from 00:18:22.799 --> 00:18:25.220 grief, from the outside world, from his own growing 00:18:25.220 --> 00:18:27.940 instability, maybe. And amidst all this strangeness, 00:18:27.940 --> 00:18:30.680 he continues to paint these powerful, sensual 00:18:30.680 --> 00:18:34.650 images of women. Which required new models, new 00:18:34.650 --> 00:18:38.049 muses. Yes. The chain walk period is defined 00:18:38.049 --> 00:18:41.009 by a new cast of muses, each seeming to embody 00:18:41.009 --> 00:18:43.569 different facets of his artistic vision, that 00:18:43.569 --> 00:18:45.549 tension between the physical and the spiritual. 00:18:45.750 --> 00:18:47.890 Who were the key figures? Well, first there was 00:18:47.890 --> 00:18:50.349 Fanny Cornforth. She'd modeled for him earlier 00:18:50.349 --> 00:18:53.730 for Bocca Bazziata back in 1859, which was one 00:18:53.730 --> 00:18:55.769 of the first paintings in this new sensual style. 00:18:56.029 --> 00:18:58.289 And what did she represent for him? The sources 00:18:58.289 --> 00:19:00.950 often describe her as the epitome of physical 00:19:00.950 --> 00:19:05.240 eroticism. earthy, sensual, perhaps less idealized 00:19:05.240 --> 00:19:07.420 than some of the others. She also modeled for 00:19:07.420 --> 00:19:11.259 the 1867 version of Lady Lilith. Okay, so Fanny 00:19:11.259 --> 00:19:13.779 represents the physical side. Who else? Then 00:19:13.779 --> 00:19:16.680 there was Alexa Wilding, a very different type. 00:19:16.779 --> 00:19:19.099 He apparently spotted her in the street, in the 00:19:19.099 --> 00:19:22.440 Strand, in 1865. Just saw her and knew she had 00:19:22.440 --> 00:19:24.619 the look he wanted. Exactly. He was struck by 00:19:24.619 --> 00:19:26.880 her beauty, her auburn hair, and he did something 00:19:26.880 --> 00:19:30.339 quite unusual. He hired her on an exclusive contract. 00:19:30.839 --> 00:19:33.140 paid her a weekly wage specifically so that no 00:19:33.140 --> 00:19:35.380 other artist could use her as a model. Really? 00:19:36.059 --> 00:19:38.440 That's quite something. It shows how important 00:19:38.440 --> 00:19:41.680 finding the right look was for him. And Weiling 00:19:41.680 --> 00:19:44.200 sat for more of his finished paintings than any 00:19:44.200 --> 00:19:46.779 other model. Think of the definitive Blessed 00:19:46.779 --> 00:19:50.660 Damazel, or a sea spell. She seems to have represented 00:19:50.660 --> 00:19:53.819 a more serene, perhaps more spiritualized beauty 00:19:53.819 --> 00:19:55.619 for him. Did they have a close relationship? 00:19:56.559 --> 00:19:59.430 Apparently quite a lasting, respectful one. She 00:19:59.430 --> 00:20:01.730 remained loyal to his memory, even regularly 00:20:01.730 --> 00:20:03.970 placing a wreath on his grave after he died. 00:20:04.410 --> 00:20:06.410 She was the professional muse, you could say. 00:20:06.829 --> 00:20:09.690 But the most intense, the most complex relationship 00:20:09.690 --> 00:20:12.069 with a muse during this period was with Jane 00:20:12.069 --> 00:20:15.890 Morris. Ah, Jane. Yes. William Morris's wife. 00:20:16.230 --> 00:20:18.789 This relationship became all -consuming for Rossetti. 00:20:19.089 --> 00:20:21.329 The sources say he was consumed and obsessed 00:20:21.329 --> 00:20:24.390 by her in paint, poetry, and life. She became 00:20:24.390 --> 00:20:26.710 the face of his later work, didn't she? Very 00:20:26.710 --> 00:20:30.220 much so. He painted her again and again, glamorizing 00:20:30.220 --> 00:20:32.799 her, transforming her into this sort of ethereal 00:20:32.799 --> 00:20:35.180 goddess. Think of paintings like Proserpine. 00:20:35.319 --> 00:20:37.799 Her unique look seemed to embody that mix of 00:20:37.799 --> 00:20:40.400 melancholy, mystery, and sensuality he was aiming 00:20:40.400 --> 00:20:42.700 for. And their personal relationship became very 00:20:42.700 --> 00:20:45.880 close. Extremely close. It developed into a long 00:20:45.880 --> 00:20:48.980 -lasting and very complicated liaison. They started 00:20:48.980 --> 00:20:51.329 using Kelmscott Manor. the house the Morrises 00:20:51.329 --> 00:20:53.950 and Rossetti rented together as a kind of private 00:20:53.950 --> 00:20:57.289 retreat from 1869 onwards. Especially when William 00:20:57.289 --> 00:20:59.490 Morris was away. Particularly when Morris was 00:20:59.490 --> 00:21:02.349 away on his long trips to Iceland in 1871 and 00:21:02.349 --> 00:21:05.789 1873. It was an intense, emotionally fraught 00:21:05.789 --> 00:21:09.069 situation for everyone involved. So artistically, 00:21:09.109 --> 00:21:11.970 he's producing these iconic, highly stylized 00:21:11.970 --> 00:21:14.769 works. But then those exhumed poems get published 00:21:14.769 --> 00:21:18.069 in 1870. And bang, instant scandal. What was 00:21:18.069 --> 00:21:20.740 so scandalous about them? By today's standards. 00:21:20.940 --> 00:21:23.440 By today's standards, probably not much. But 00:21:23.440 --> 00:21:26.380 for Victorian sensibilities, they were shockingly 00:21:26.380 --> 00:21:29.099 explicit. Especially the poem, Nuptial Sleep. 00:21:29.200 --> 00:21:31.000 What was that about? It describes a couple lying 00:21:31.000 --> 00:21:32.759 quietly together, falling asleep immediately 00:21:32.759 --> 00:21:36.299 after sex. That level of physical intimacy, that 00:21:36.299 --> 00:21:38.799 post -codal moment described in verse, was considered 00:21:38.799 --> 00:21:41.640 deeply inappropriate, almost indecent for public 00:21:41.640 --> 00:21:43.680 consumption. And this led to a major critical 00:21:43.680 --> 00:21:47.200 attack. A ferocious one. Led by the critic, Robert 00:21:47.200 --> 00:21:50.819 Buchanan. He wrote this scathing review, later 00:21:50.819 --> 00:21:53.740 expanded into a pamphlet, titled The Fleshly 00:21:53.740 --> 00:21:57.160 School of Poetry. The Fleshly School? That's 00:21:57.160 --> 00:21:59.980 quite a label. It stuck. Buchanan basically accused 00:21:59.980 --> 00:22:02.740 Rossetti and others, like Swinburne, of being 00:22:02.740 --> 00:22:05.299 obsessed with physical sensations, of being immoral, 00:22:05.400 --> 00:22:08.079 of corrupting poetry. And Rossetti took it incredibly 00:22:08.079 --> 00:22:10.819 personally. He saw it as an attack on him as 00:22:10.819 --> 00:22:13.200 a man, not just his work. Absolutely. He felt 00:22:13.200 --> 00:22:15.480 Buchanan was deliberately targeting him. perhaps 00:22:15.480 --> 00:22:17.579 motivated by professional jealousy or personal 00:22:17.579 --> 00:22:20.420 animosity, the whole affair caused him immense 00:22:20.420 --> 00:22:22.980 distress. Yet, ironically, out of the same period 00:22:22.980 --> 00:22:25.259 comes what many consider his greatest literary 00:22:25.259 --> 00:22:28.140 work. Yes, despite the controversy, or maybe 00:22:28.140 --> 00:22:30.920 fueled by the same intensity, he produced the 00:22:30.920 --> 00:22:33.049 sonnet sequence, The House of Life. which is 00:22:33.049 --> 00:22:35.430 seen as his masterpiece in poetry. It really 00:22:35.430 --> 00:22:37.630 is. It's this incredibly complex, ambitious cycle 00:22:37.630 --> 00:22:39.470 of sonnets. It explores the whole trajectory 00:22:39.470 --> 00:22:41.490 of an intimate relationship, the spiritual side, 00:22:41.609 --> 00:22:43.849 the physical side, the joys, the sorrows, the 00:22:43.849 --> 00:22:46.549 philosophical reflections. It perfectly embodies 00:22:46.549 --> 00:22:49.809 his dual focus. And he had a famous phrase for 00:22:49.809 --> 00:22:52.450 what a sonnet should be. He did. He called the 00:22:52.450 --> 00:22:55.170 sonnet form a moment's monument, which is just 00:22:55.170 --> 00:22:57.289 brilliant, isn't it? A moment's monument. Capturing 00:22:57.289 --> 00:22:59.710 a fleeting feeling, an instant of intense emotion 00:22:59.710 --> 00:23:04.660 or insight, permanent monumental form in the 00:23:04.660 --> 00:23:07.799 14 lines of the sonnet. It's exactly what he 00:23:07.799 --> 00:23:10.500 was trying to do in his paintings to capture 00:23:10.500 --> 00:23:13.059 that intense singular moment. It's also worth 00:23:13.059 --> 00:23:15.599 noting, just as a linguistic aside, he actually 00:23:15.599 --> 00:23:19.039 coined a word we still use. He did. In his 1869 00:23:19.039 --> 00:23:21.420 translation of a poem by François Villon, the 00:23:21.420 --> 00:23:23.960 Ballade des Dames du Tonjadis, Rossetti came 00:23:23.960 --> 00:23:26.359 up with the word yesteryear. It didn't exist 00:23:26.359 --> 00:23:29.240 in English before him. Really? Yesteryear? That's 00:23:29.240 --> 00:23:31.480 fascinating. It is, isn't it? Just another little 00:23:31.480 --> 00:23:34.019 mark you left. So we have this period of intense 00:23:34.019 --> 00:23:37.539 creativity, tangled relationships, public scandal. 00:23:37.799 --> 00:23:39.640 It sounds like a pressure cooker. It absolutely 00:23:39.640 --> 00:23:42.759 was. And the pressure, particularly from Buchanan's 00:23:42.759 --> 00:23:45.420 savage attack on the Fleshly School, seems to 00:23:45.420 --> 00:23:48.299 have been the final straw. It directly contributed 00:23:48.299 --> 00:23:50.980 to a serious mental breakdown Rossetti suffered 00:23:50.980 --> 00:23:54.859 in June 1872. A complete collapse. Pretty much. 00:23:55.259 --> 00:23:58.180 He became deeply paranoid, suffered delusions. 00:23:58.400 --> 00:24:01.559 He retreated again, this time to Kelmscott Manor. 00:24:01.599 --> 00:24:03.500 But the sources say he spent much of his time 00:24:03.500 --> 00:24:07.059 there in a haze of chloral and whiskey. Chloral? 00:24:07.079 --> 00:24:09.880 What's that? Chloral hydrate. It was a sedative, 00:24:09.960 --> 00:24:12.799 a hypnotic drug, quite commonly prescribed at 00:24:12.799 --> 00:24:15.319 the time, but also highly addictive and dangerous. 00:24:15.680 --> 00:24:17.480 He started taking it apparently to help with 00:24:17.480 --> 00:24:20.720 insomnia and perhaps pain following a minor operation, 00:24:21.059 --> 00:24:23.740 a botched procedure to remove a hydrosil. And 00:24:23.740 --> 00:24:26.099 the whiskey? Chloral hydrate has an incredibly 00:24:26.099 --> 00:24:28.819 bitter, unpleasant taste. So like many users 00:24:28.819 --> 00:24:30.839 at the time, Rossetti started mixing it with 00:24:30.839 --> 00:24:33.640 large amounts of whiskey to mask the taste, which 00:24:33.640 --> 00:24:36.079 of course created its own problems. Alcohol psychosis, 00:24:36.220 --> 00:24:38.160 the source has mentioned. Yes. The combination 00:24:38.160 --> 00:24:40.099 was devastating. It destroyed his physical health 00:24:40.099 --> 00:24:42.759 and worsened his mental state, fueling his paranoia. 00:24:43.319 --> 00:24:46.180 There's that dark, tragic symmetry again, his 00:24:46.180 --> 00:24:48.720 own decline, mirroring his wife Elizabeth's death 00:24:48.720 --> 00:24:51.299 from a drug overdose, Laudanum in her case. Did 00:24:51.299 --> 00:24:53.519 he ever really recover from this breakdown? Not 00:24:53.519 --> 00:24:55.730 fully. He seems to have been fundamentally changed 00:24:55.730 --> 00:24:58.490 by it. Yeah. He left Kelmscott rather abruptly 00:24:58.490 --> 00:25:02.250 in 1874. There were tensions with Morris, partly 00:25:02.250 --> 00:25:04.509 over the reorganization of Morris' decorative 00:25:04.509 --> 00:25:07.210 arts firm. He went back to Chinois. And spent 00:25:07.210 --> 00:25:10.250 his last years there. Yes, essentially as a recluse, 00:25:10.349 --> 00:25:12.950 dominated by the drug addiction, poor health, 00:25:13.089 --> 00:25:16.549 paranoia, a very sad end to such a vibrant life. 00:25:16.829 --> 00:25:18.910 And he died quite young, didn't he? Only 53. 00:25:19.569 --> 00:25:22.630 That's right. He died in 1882. Not at Chain Walk, 00:25:22.750 --> 00:25:24.130 actually, but while staying at a friend's house 00:25:24.130 --> 00:25:26.950 in Burshington -on -Sea in Kent, where he'd gone 00:25:26.950 --> 00:25:29.109 hoping the sea air might help him recover somewhat. 00:25:29.410 --> 00:25:31.549 The official cause was Braith's disease, kidney 00:25:31.549 --> 00:25:34.170 failure. Which the chloral in whiskey wouldn't 00:25:34.170 --> 00:25:36.150 have helped. Almost certainly exacerbated it 00:25:36.150 --> 00:25:39.130 significantly. His body was just worn out. So 00:25:39.130 --> 00:25:41.450 looking back at his whole career, how do we assess 00:25:41.450 --> 00:25:46.170 his legacy? We have the early radical pre -Raphaelite 00:25:46.170 --> 00:25:48.789 Rossetti and then the later symbolist Rossetti 00:25:48.789 --> 00:25:51.769 of Chain Walk. It's left a slightly divided perception 00:25:51.769 --> 00:25:53.910 of him, I think. His early work, especially the 00:25:53.910 --> 00:25:55.829 drawings, is incredibly important technically. 00:25:56.049 --> 00:25:58.029 You can see his originality, how he was pushing 00:25:58.029 --> 00:26:01.269 against academic norms. But it's the later paintings 00:26:01.269 --> 00:26:04.490 that everyone knows. Undeniably. Those lush, 00:26:04.549 --> 00:26:07.150 intense images of women, Fanny Cornforth, Alexa 00:26:07.150 --> 00:26:10.589 Wilding, Jane Morris, they are reproduced constantly. 00:26:11.069 --> 00:26:13.430 And because they're so dominant, they've sometimes 00:26:13.430 --> 00:26:15.569 led to this popular view of Rossetti as being 00:26:15.569 --> 00:26:20.170 all about morbid and languorous sensuality. perhaps 00:26:20.170 --> 00:26:23.009 overshadowing the innovation of his earlier PRB 00:26:23.009 --> 00:26:25.349 phase. But serious critics saw his importance 00:26:25.349 --> 00:26:28.130 beyond just those later images. Oh, absolutely. 00:26:28.390 --> 00:26:31.289 Figures like Roger Fry, who was hugely influential 00:26:31.289 --> 00:26:33.609 in promoting modern art in Britain, recognized 00:26:33.609 --> 00:26:36.410 Rossetti's significance. Fry called him a key 00:26:36.410 --> 00:26:39.190 forerunner of new ideas in English art, second 00:26:39.190 --> 00:26:41.470 only perhaps to William Blake and his originality. 00:26:41.849 --> 00:26:44.130 And Ellis Lowry, the painter, was a big collector 00:26:44.130 --> 00:26:46.369 of Rossetti's work. He was. Obsessed with him, 00:26:46.410 --> 00:26:48.430 apparently. And Lowry had this really insightful 00:26:48.430 --> 00:26:50.329 take on the later female figures. He said they 00:26:50.329 --> 00:26:52.390 were not real women, they were dreams. Dreams. 00:26:52.650 --> 00:26:55.690 Yeah. Lowry felt these were images created after 00:26:55.690 --> 00:26:58.250 Siddall's death, born out of Rossetti's grief, 00:26:58.430 --> 00:27:01.150 his idealization, his psychological state. Not 00:27:01.150 --> 00:27:03.589 straightforward portraits, but projections of 00:27:03.589 --> 00:27:06.109 an inner world. Beyond painting, his influence 00:27:06.109 --> 00:27:09.269 carried on. Definitely. His work was a huge touchstone 00:27:09.269 --> 00:27:11.210 for the aesthetic movement, you know, the whole 00:27:11.210 --> 00:27:14.210 art for art's sake idea, and for the symbolists 00:27:14.210 --> 00:27:16.769 across Europe who were trying to paint moods, 00:27:16.769 --> 00:27:19.670 ideas, inner states, rather than just external 00:27:19.670 --> 00:27:22.670 reality. And his poetry inspired musicians, too. 00:27:22.849 --> 00:27:25.190 Yes. quite significantly in the classical world. 00:27:25.589 --> 00:27:27.950 Claude Debussy wrote his beautiful cantata La 00:27:27.950 --> 00:27:30.769 Demoiselle Elue, based directly on Rossetti's 00:27:30.769 --> 00:27:33.490 poem The Blessed Demoiselle. Ah, Debussy, that's 00:27:33.490 --> 00:27:35.710 major. And the English composer Ralph Vaughan 00:27:35.710 --> 00:27:37.950 Williams created a whole song cycle called The 00:27:37.950 --> 00:27:40.950 House of Life, based on Rossetti's sonnets. It 00:27:40.950 --> 00:27:43.029 includes one of his most famous songs, Silent 00:27:43.029 --> 00:27:45.700 Noon. So his words lived on through music, but 00:27:45.700 --> 00:27:47.740 the influence even stretches into more modern 00:27:47.740 --> 00:27:49.819 pop culture, surprisingly. It does, which is 00:27:49.819 --> 00:27:51.400 fascinating. You wouldn't necessarily expect 00:27:51.400 --> 00:27:54.039 it. But for instance, the 90s grunge band Hole, 00:27:54.319 --> 00:27:57.059 fronted by Courtney Love. Really? Hole? Yes. 00:27:57.420 --> 00:28:00.500 Their big hit song, Celebrity Skin, directly 00:28:00.500 --> 00:28:02.500 quotes a line from Rossetti's House of Life. 00:28:02.799 --> 00:28:05.319 From the sonnet's superscription, actually. The 00:28:05.319 --> 00:28:10.680 line is, Wow. My name is might have been. That's 00:28:10.680 --> 00:28:12.839 pure Rossetti angst right there. Isn't it just? 00:28:13.039 --> 00:28:15.259 And another one, David Bowie. He specifically 00:28:15.259 --> 00:28:17.980 said that the album cover for The Man Who Sold 00:28:17.980 --> 00:28:20.400 the World, the UK version where he's lounging 00:28:20.400 --> 00:28:22.940 in that dress. The infamous dress cover. Exactly. 00:28:23.220 --> 00:28:25.640 Yeah. Bowie described it as a direct parody of 00:28:25.640 --> 00:28:28.170 a Rossetti painting. He was tapping into that 00:28:28.170 --> 00:28:31.589 same languid, androgynous, stylized sensuality 00:28:31.589 --> 00:28:34.250 that Rossetti pioneered in his later work. That's 00:28:34.250 --> 00:28:36.789 amazing. From medieval manuscripts to David Bowie, 00:28:36.849 --> 00:28:39.309 quite a reach. It shows the enduring power of 00:28:39.309 --> 00:28:41.910 the aesthetic he created, doesn't it? So summing 00:28:41.910 --> 00:28:43.829 up this deep dive, what really stands out is 00:28:43.829 --> 00:28:46.089 this constant tension in Rossetti's life and 00:28:46.089 --> 00:28:48.769 work. He starts with these radical ideals, truth 00:28:48.769 --> 00:28:51.609 to nature, moral reform through realism with 00:28:51.609 --> 00:28:54.529 the PRB. Yes, that initial manifesto was so clear. 00:28:54.920 --> 00:28:56.740 But as we've seen, whether it was the critical 00:28:56.740 --> 00:28:59.440 rejection or personal tragedy or just his own 00:28:59.440 --> 00:29:02.240 inclinations, he ultimately retreated from that 00:29:02.240 --> 00:29:04.859 kind of realism. Into a much more personal, symbolic 00:29:04.859 --> 00:29:07.720 world. Exactly. He swapped the gritty detail 00:29:07.720 --> 00:29:10.619 of the street for these ethereal imagined muses, 00:29:10.619 --> 00:29:13.200 these intense inner landscapes, and got caught 00:29:13.200 --> 00:29:15.700 up in literary controversy along the way. But 00:29:15.700 --> 00:29:17.400 in doing that, he created something new, this 00:29:17.400 --> 00:29:20.279 powerful, psychologically charged vision of beauty, 00:29:20.420 --> 00:29:23.089 especially female beauty. His great achievement 00:29:23.089 --> 00:29:26.049 seems to be that refusal to choose between painting 00:29:26.049 --> 00:29:28.609 and poetry. And the way he led that artistic 00:29:28.609 --> 00:29:31.509 revolt, even if he later diverged from its original 00:29:31.509 --> 00:29:34.150 path, he really did define a new kind of aesthetic. 00:29:34.490 --> 00:29:36.970 He absolutely did. He forged this incredibly 00:29:36.970 --> 00:29:39.430 influential path, bridging words and images, 00:29:39.569 --> 00:29:42.130 medievalism, and a kind of modern sensibility. 00:29:42.390 --> 00:29:44.490 But as we've seen, that intense pursuit of beauty, 00:29:44.670 --> 00:29:47.369 that constant negotiation between the ideal and 00:29:47.369 --> 00:29:50.769 the real, it came at a huge personal cost. Stability, 00:29:50.829 --> 00:29:53.670 peace. They seem to have alluded him. It connects 00:29:53.670 --> 00:29:55.569 back to how he used art almost to manage his 00:29:55.569 --> 00:29:58.359 emotions, doesn't it? taking his dead wife, Elizabeth 00:29:58.359 --> 00:30:00.779 Sittle, and making her into this spiritual icon 00:30:00.779 --> 00:30:03.480 like Beatrice. While at the very same time, painting 00:30:03.480 --> 00:30:05.640 other women, like Fanny Cornforth or Jane Morris, 00:30:05.819 --> 00:30:08.740 with this incredibly potent, complex, sometimes 00:30:08.740 --> 00:30:11.480 troubling sensuality. It leaves us with a really 00:30:11.480 --> 00:30:13.339 interesting question, maybe for you, the listener, 00:30:13.460 --> 00:30:15.680 to think about. Rossetti spent his life trying 00:30:15.680 --> 00:30:18.799 to capture intense feeling, these moments, monuments, 00:30:19.119 --> 00:30:22.200 in both art and poetry. He wrestled constantly 00:30:22.200 --> 00:30:24.460 with the spiritual and the physical. So the question 00:30:24.460 --> 00:30:27.900 is, Can art ever truly reconcile those two things, 00:30:27.980 --> 00:30:30.099 the aspirations of the soul and the demands, 00:30:30.119 --> 00:30:32.539 the realities of the body? He certainly tried. 00:30:32.819 --> 00:30:35.940 But how successful was he really? And maybe more 00:30:35.940 --> 00:30:37.559 importantly, how should we view the work of an 00:30:37.559 --> 00:30:40.039 artist like Rossetti, whose most powerful creations 00:30:40.039 --> 00:30:43.339 seem so deeply, inextricably linked to his own 00:30:43.339 --> 00:30:45.980 personal turmoil and conflicts? It's a fascinating, 00:30:46.059 --> 00:30:47.380 complex legacy to unravel.