Description of the painting by Dante Rossetti “Proserpina”
Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, artist and translator.
In memory, he remained as a romantic person, bright and extraordinary. He worked under the influence of European Symbolists and was a major follower of the aesthetic line in art. His art is characterized by sensuality and medieval poetry.
Poetry and appearance are closely related in the works of Rossetti; he wrote sonnets to bind to his paintings or, on the contrary, he painted pictures to illustrate poetry. He meets his first muse Elizabeth Sidle, creates a brotherhood of pre-Raphaelites and actively communicates with other artists.
Dante Gabrielle endlessly draws a red-haired Lizi, even with other models, her image dominated or merged in the lines of the depicted girls. Exquisite beautiful things, aestheticism on canvas – this is what is expensive Rossetti. His drawings were distinguished by their color, brightness and density
In the picture of Proserpine there is no vulgarity, the artist professes the cult of the highest femininity in symbiosis with the ideals of the Renaissance. In the role of Proserpine is a new and last muse of the poet – Jane Maurice, the wife of a friend of Pre-Raphaelite. She becomes the main inspiration and embodiment of the Rossetti style, even more so than previous women.
Contemporaries described her as a tall, slender woman in a long dress of purple fabric, with a mass of wavy black hair and a thin pale face, from which a pair of strange sad-deep eyes under thick black eyebrows look.
A series of her portraits appears, but Dante Gabrielne considered them portraits. He always called them what they were, and each of them was an image, either of an ancient heroine, or of literary medieval English poetry.
The painting is named for the daughter of Dimetra and Zeus Proserpina (Persephone), who in Roman mythology was abducted by Hades and spent six months in the realm of death. Therefore, night and day are combined in a portrait.
(2 votes, average: 4.50 out of 5)