Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 08.djvu/157

ROSSETTI 123 ROSSETTI mainly a freethinker, but tending in his later years toward an undogmatic form of Christianity. Though totally opposed to the papal system and pretensions, he would not openly abjure, in a Protestant country, the Roman Catholic creed of his fathers. His health began to fail in 1842, and his sight became dim. After some attacks of a paralytic character he died in London, April 26, 1854. Besides some poems published in Italy, Rossetti produced the following works: "Dante, Commedia" (the Inferno only was published), with a commentary aiming to show that the poem is chiefly political and anti-papal in its inner meaning (1826) ; "Lo Spirito Antipapale che produsse la Riforma" ("The Anti-Papal spirit which produced the Reformation" — an English translation also was published), reinforc- ing and greatly extending the same gen- eral views (1832); "Iddio e l'Uomo, Sal- terio" ("God and Man, a Psaltery"), poems (1833) ; "II Mistero dell' Amor Platonico del Medio Evo" ("The Myste- rious Platonic Love of the Middle Ages"), five volumes (1840). This book was printed and prepared for publication, but withheld as likely to be deemed rash and subversive; "La Beatrice di Dante," con- tending that Dante's Beatrice was a sym- bolic personage, not a real woman (1842); "II Veggente in Solitudine" ("The Seer in Solitude"), a speculative and partly autobiographical poem (1846) ; it circulated largely, though clandestinely, in Italy, and a medal of Rossetti was struck there in commemo- ration; "Versi" (miscellaneous poems) (1847) ; and _ "L'Arpa Evangelica 4 " ("The Evangelic Harp"), religious poems (1852). Christina Georgina, an English poet; born in London, England, Dec. 5, 1830, daughter of the preceding. "Goblin Mar- ket" (1862) is regarded as her finest production. Her other writings consist chiefly of lyric poems of great beauty, and sonnets mostly of a devotional order. They include: "The Prince's Progress" (1866) ; "Commonplace, and Other Short Stories" (in prose: 1870); "Sing-Song: A Nursery Rhyme Book" (1872) ; "An- nus Domini: A Prayer for Each Day in the Year" (1873) ; "Speaking Likenesses" (1874) ; "Seek and Find" (1879) ; "A Pageant, and Other Poems" (1881) ; "Letter and Spirit" (1883); "Verses" (1893) ; and several posthumous works. She died Dec. 29, 1894. Dante Gabriel (or properly Gabriel Charles Dante), an English painter and poet; born in London, May 12, 1828, eld- est son of Gabriele. He was educated in King's College School, London; but, hav- ing from his earliest years evinced a wish to become a painter, he was taken from school in 1843 and began the study of art, entering soon afterward the an- tique school of the Royal Academy. Here he associated with the young painters John Everett Millais and William Hol- man Hunt, and the sculptor Thomas Woolner; along with these three he founded the so-called Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, which was completed by the addition of three other members. The chief incentive to the foundation of this society, and of the school of art which it initiated, was the distaste of the followers for the commonplace sub- jects and slurred execution in current English art. They aimed to revive the lofty feeling, and patient handiwork, which had been developed by the Euro- pean schools of art preceding the cul- mination of Raphael and his followers. The English Pre-Raphaelites wished to exhibit true and high ideas through the medium of true and rightly elaborated details. Rossetti's earliest oil picture, exhibited in 1849, was "The Girlhood of Mary Virgin"; his next (1850), now in the National Gallery, "The Annuncia- tion." After this he withdrew from ex- hibiting almost entirely, and his art developed through other phases, in which the sense of human beauty, intensity of abstract expression, and richness of color were leading elements. He produced nu- merous water-colors of a legendary or romantic cast, several of them being from the poems of Dante, others from the Arthurian tradition. Among his principal oil pictures are the Triptych for Llandaff Cathedral, of the "Infant Christ Adored by a Shep- herd and a King," "The Beloved" (the Bride of the Canticles), "Dante's Dream" (now in the Walker Gallery, Liverpool), "Beata Beatrix" (National Gallery), "Pandora," "Proserpine," "The Blessed Damozel" (from one of his own poems), "The Roman Widow," "La Ghirlandata," "Venus Astarte," "The Day-dream." He designed several large compositions, such as the "Magdalene at the door of Simon the Pharisee," "Giotto Painting Dante's Portrait," "Cassandra," and the "Boat of Love" (from a sonnet by Dante). Notwithstanding his passionate impulse as an inventive artist, and his impress- ive realization of beauty in countenance and color, some shortcomings in severe draughtsmanship and in technical meth- od, and some degree of mannerism in form and treatment, have often, and not unjustly, been laid to his charge. Rossetti began writing poetry about the same time that he took definitely to the study of painting. Besides some juvenile work, and some translations from the German (that of "Henry the Leper," by the mediaeval poet, Hartmann