leyla
28-Oct-2011, 17:15
Rossetti: Painter and Poet by J.B. Bullen
Frances Lincoln £35.00
The symbolist, romantic paintings of the Pre- Raphaelites have intrigued art lovers for decades, with the recent BBC drama reigniting interest. Of all the names associated with this movement, it is Dante Gabriel Rossetti who has attracted most attention, partly because of his persistent use of a handful of female models with whom he was also romantically involved and also because of his talent as a poet, most notably, a writer of sonnets.
Bullen is Professor Emeritus at Reading, and wrote about Rossetti in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, but this sumptuous, headily illustrated tome allows him the space to really do his subject justice. He starts by sketching the life of Rossetti's Italian father, from whom the artist derived his fascination with Dante's poetry. While his political refugee father saw Dante's work in terms of political allegory, Rossetti the younger was more entranced by the symbolic and mystical elements of the Italian writer's work.
Bullen writes clearly and sensitively, and the detailed account of Rossetti's development as a young man, poet and artist along with information about the circles in which he moved, allow the reader to understand Rossetti's concerns, obsessions and (for the era) unconventional ways. The volume is highly readable, with most double pages of text being broken by divine colour reproductions, and with poems and chalk or ink studies also soothing the eye.
Rossetti's infatuation with a number of women throughout his life, from the red-haired and increasingly frail Lizzie Siddal, through the voluptuous blonde Fanny Cornforth to Jane Morris, the soulful-looking dark-haired wife of his great friend William, is meticulously narrated, as is Rossetti's inability to commit to any of them. In fact, Rossetti's unwillingness to enter what he saw as the mundane domestic situation of monogamous marriage was to bring him as much misery as it did ecstatic erotic joy, since he repeated the same pattern throughout his life of wanting what he couldn't have. As soon as a woman was associated with one of his friends - Annie Miller, for example - Rossetti also had to have her. There was a certain degre of sharing of models in the circle between most of the Pre-Raphaelites, but Rossetti seems to have been the most extreme, and once his initial urge was sated, he often quickly lost interest. Thus, Lizzie wasted away from the pain of his neglect, ending up addicted to laudanum (an opiate), only for Rossetti to be haunted by remorse and dreams of her after her death. He could probably have married Jane too, before William Morris (a key figure in the Aesthetic arts and crafts movement), but seemed almost to encourage William to do so, yet had no qualms about having a long affair with Jane afterwards.
To a female reader, Rossetti's behaviour towards women seems not only inconsiderate but also self indulgent, full of dramatic declarations and whims which he would then snatch back. In addition to procrastinating about marriage to Lizzie for years, he also buried an unpublished book of his poems in her grave, only to exhume it years later when he had second thoughts. His treatment of his dear friends, too, is tinged with selfishness: not only did Morris know about the longstanding affair between his wife and Rossetti, but he was somehow persuaded to buy a beautiful house at Kelmscott so that the trio could come and go for Rossetti's convenience. Rossetti even sabotaged this haven for Morris by bringing in dogs, which Morris hated, and at one point Rossetti's egocentricity included suggesting to Jane that he adopt Jane and Morris's small daughter. Yet around the same time Rossetti still expected Morris to pen a favourable review of Rossetti's newly published volume of poems, which his loyal friend did. At other times, though, sharing a woman seems to have been effected without adverse effect on the friendship, as when Boyce and Rossetti shared Fanny Cornforth, although Fanny's views on this arrangement are not forthcoming. Bullen's account is admirably objective, and he doesn't judge his subject at all, leaving the reader to formulate their own opinions.
Other delicious snippets of gossip are sprinkled through the pages of this book. Ruskin the art critic, for example, supported Millais, another Pre- Raphaelite, for years, only to be rewarded by Millais running off with Ruskin's wife. A scandalous divorce case ensued, where Mrs Ruskin alleged that her marriage to Ruskin had remained unconsummated. Interesting reasons as to why this might have been are mulled over by Bullen: Ruskin's objection to a bushy throng of flowers beneath waist level in one of Rossetti's paintings might have signalled a fear of female pubic hair. Other examples of detail include the fact that Turner painted a series of porn paintings when travelling abroad, and that Ruskin was horrified by this while at the same time (paradoxically, one would think), was infatuated with a ten-year old girl.
Rossetti was undoubtedly one of the pioneering artists exploring desire and sexual allure, and his sensual depictions of Fanny Cornforth, such as Bocca Baciata, caused uproar in polite society. There is a tendency among some art critics to dissect paintings of beautiful women in fairly gynaecological terms which leaves this reviewer feeling queasy: it may well be that the crowns hanging over the Queen's bed in various paintings of Guenevere, the faithless queen of Arthurian legend, who had an affair with Sir Lancelot when married, do symbolise vulvae waiting to be penetrated as Bullen alleges, but repeated graphic interpretations of circular objects (rings) as female genitals expecting piercing by less than convincing phallic objects (a sword, maybe, but a tap?), can become tiresome, as can references to the kissed mouth of Fanny in Bocca Baciata resembling female genitals and being a reference to Rossetti's fondness for oral sex which he obtained from Fanny. Surely this last conclusion can't be more than conjecture? Similarly, Bullen depicts a line from a Rossetti poem, His Portrait of His Lady, which reads '...beyond is Paradise' as referring to 'the 'Paradise' that she conceals between her legs', while my own interpretation would be a less restrictive, more general erotic paradise encompassing the ecstacy and warmth of sex with a loved one rather than just the penetrative act. Sometimes sensuality is killed by academic anatomical analysis.
My only other query would be the accuracy of describing Rossetti's paranoid outbursts near the end of his life as dementia: they sound more like psychosis, possibly precipitated by heavy drug use.
Still, despite these tiny niggles, this is a lucid, compelling and elegant account of the life of one of our great artists, encased in a beautiful silky-paged volume stuffed with luxuriant colour reproductions. A must for any art lover.
Frances Lincoln £35.00
The symbolist, romantic paintings of the Pre- Raphaelites have intrigued art lovers for decades, with the recent BBC drama reigniting interest. Of all the names associated with this movement, it is Dante Gabriel Rossetti who has attracted most attention, partly because of his persistent use of a handful of female models with whom he was also romantically involved and also because of his talent as a poet, most notably, a writer of sonnets.
Bullen is Professor Emeritus at Reading, and wrote about Rossetti in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, but this sumptuous, headily illustrated tome allows him the space to really do his subject justice. He starts by sketching the life of Rossetti's Italian father, from whom the artist derived his fascination with Dante's poetry. While his political refugee father saw Dante's work in terms of political allegory, Rossetti the younger was more entranced by the symbolic and mystical elements of the Italian writer's work.
Bullen writes clearly and sensitively, and the detailed account of Rossetti's development as a young man, poet and artist along with information about the circles in which he moved, allow the reader to understand Rossetti's concerns, obsessions and (for the era) unconventional ways. The volume is highly readable, with most double pages of text being broken by divine colour reproductions, and with poems and chalk or ink studies also soothing the eye.
Rossetti's infatuation with a number of women throughout his life, from the red-haired and increasingly frail Lizzie Siddal, through the voluptuous blonde Fanny Cornforth to Jane Morris, the soulful-looking dark-haired wife of his great friend William, is meticulously narrated, as is Rossetti's inability to commit to any of them. In fact, Rossetti's unwillingness to enter what he saw as the mundane domestic situation of monogamous marriage was to bring him as much misery as it did ecstatic erotic joy, since he repeated the same pattern throughout his life of wanting what he couldn't have. As soon as a woman was associated with one of his friends - Annie Miller, for example - Rossetti also had to have her. There was a certain degre of sharing of models in the circle between most of the Pre-Raphaelites, but Rossetti seems to have been the most extreme, and once his initial urge was sated, he often quickly lost interest. Thus, Lizzie wasted away from the pain of his neglect, ending up addicted to laudanum (an opiate), only for Rossetti to be haunted by remorse and dreams of her after her death. He could probably have married Jane too, before William Morris (a key figure in the Aesthetic arts and crafts movement), but seemed almost to encourage William to do so, yet had no qualms about having a long affair with Jane afterwards.
To a female reader, Rossetti's behaviour towards women seems not only inconsiderate but also self indulgent, full of dramatic declarations and whims which he would then snatch back. In addition to procrastinating about marriage to Lizzie for years, he also buried an unpublished book of his poems in her grave, only to exhume it years later when he had second thoughts. His treatment of his dear friends, too, is tinged with selfishness: not only did Morris know about the longstanding affair between his wife and Rossetti, but he was somehow persuaded to buy a beautiful house at Kelmscott so that the trio could come and go for Rossetti's convenience. Rossetti even sabotaged this haven for Morris by bringing in dogs, which Morris hated, and at one point Rossetti's egocentricity included suggesting to Jane that he adopt Jane and Morris's small daughter. Yet around the same time Rossetti still expected Morris to pen a favourable review of Rossetti's newly published volume of poems, which his loyal friend did. At other times, though, sharing a woman seems to have been effected without adverse effect on the friendship, as when Boyce and Rossetti shared Fanny Cornforth, although Fanny's views on this arrangement are not forthcoming. Bullen's account is admirably objective, and he doesn't judge his subject at all, leaving the reader to formulate their own opinions.
Other delicious snippets of gossip are sprinkled through the pages of this book. Ruskin the art critic, for example, supported Millais, another Pre- Raphaelite, for years, only to be rewarded by Millais running off with Ruskin's wife. A scandalous divorce case ensued, where Mrs Ruskin alleged that her marriage to Ruskin had remained unconsummated. Interesting reasons as to why this might have been are mulled over by Bullen: Ruskin's objection to a bushy throng of flowers beneath waist level in one of Rossetti's paintings might have signalled a fear of female pubic hair. Other examples of detail include the fact that Turner painted a series of porn paintings when travelling abroad, and that Ruskin was horrified by this while at the same time (paradoxically, one would think), was infatuated with a ten-year old girl.
Rossetti was undoubtedly one of the pioneering artists exploring desire and sexual allure, and his sensual depictions of Fanny Cornforth, such as Bocca Baciata, caused uproar in polite society. There is a tendency among some art critics to dissect paintings of beautiful women in fairly gynaecological terms which leaves this reviewer feeling queasy: it may well be that the crowns hanging over the Queen's bed in various paintings of Guenevere, the faithless queen of Arthurian legend, who had an affair with Sir Lancelot when married, do symbolise vulvae waiting to be penetrated as Bullen alleges, but repeated graphic interpretations of circular objects (rings) as female genitals expecting piercing by less than convincing phallic objects (a sword, maybe, but a tap?), can become tiresome, as can references to the kissed mouth of Fanny in Bocca Baciata resembling female genitals and being a reference to Rossetti's fondness for oral sex which he obtained from Fanny. Surely this last conclusion can't be more than conjecture? Similarly, Bullen depicts a line from a Rossetti poem, His Portrait of His Lady, which reads '...beyond is Paradise' as referring to 'the 'Paradise' that she conceals between her legs', while my own interpretation would be a less restrictive, more general erotic paradise encompassing the ecstacy and warmth of sex with a loved one rather than just the penetrative act. Sometimes sensuality is killed by academic anatomical analysis.
My only other query would be the accuracy of describing Rossetti's paranoid outbursts near the end of his life as dementia: they sound more like psychosis, possibly precipitated by heavy drug use.
Still, despite these tiny niggles, this is a lucid, compelling and elegant account of the life of one of our great artists, encased in a beautiful silky-paged volume stuffed with luxuriant colour reproductions. A must for any art lover.