,transcriber's ,note3 ,this version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects4 ,italics are delimited with the #8' character as italic4 ,errors1 when reasonably attributable to the printer1 have been corrected4 ,please see the transcriber's note at the end of this text for details4 ,corrections made to the text are summarized there4 ,footnotes have been resequenced to be unique across the book1 and have been gathered at the end of each chapter4 ,the illustrations have been moved to avoid falling within a paragraph4 ,each plate was prefixed by a caption and attribution on a previous page1 and both caption and illustration were blank on their verso1 and all four pages were not included in the pagination4 ,the blank pages are not included here1 obviously4 ,,dante ,,rossetti ,,and ,,the ,,pre-,,raphaelite ,,movement ,illustration 8,,the ,,day-,,dream40 ,from the chalk4 ,by permission of ,mr4 ,theodore ,watts4 ,,dante ,,rossetti ,,and ,,the ,,pre-,,raphaelite ,,movement ,,by ,,esther ,,wood ,,london3 ,,sampson ,,low1 ,,marston ,,and ,,company1 ,,limited1 ,,saint ,,dunstan',s ,,house1 ,,fetter ,,lane ,,fleet ,,street1 ,e4,c4 ,,mdcccxciiij ,,chiswick ,,press3--,c4 ,,whittingham ,,and ,,co41 ,,tooks ,,court1 ,,chancery ,,lane1 ,,london1 ,e4,c4 ,,preface4 ,the following pages do not afford any material additions to what is already known of ,dante ,rossetti1 or of the history and purpose of the ,pre-,raphaelite ,brotherhood4 ,the authoritative biography of ,rossetti has yet to be written2 and while availing myself fully of such new details as may cast fresh side-lights upon the dominant personalities of the ,pre-,raphaelite movement1 my aim has rather been to present the main features of that movement in their relation to the larger intellectual tendencies of the age1 and to the moral principles which have determined the growth of taste and feeling in the nineteenth century4 ,to this end ,i have avoided as far as possible the proper domain of the art critic1 and endeavoured to deal with the ,pre-,raphaelite movement more as an ethical than an sthetic revolution4 8,it was always known to be ,rossetti's wish10 says ,mr4 ,hall ,caine in his interesting and graphic 8,recollections of ,rossetti10 8that if at any moment after his death it should appear that the story of his life required to be written1 the one friend who during many of his later years knew him most intimately1 and to whom he unlocked the most sacred secrets of his heart1 ,mr4 ,theodore ,watts1 should write it2 unless indeed it were undertaken by his brother ,william4 ,but though ,i know that whenever ,mr4 ,watts sets pen to paper in pursuance of such a purpose and in fulfilment of such charge1 he will afford us a recognizable portrait of the man1 vivified by picturesque illustration1 the like of which few other writers could compass1 ,i also know from what ,rossetti often told me of his friend's immersion in all kinds and varieties of life1 that years 7perhaps many years7 may elapse before such a biography is given to the world40 ,in the meantime1 the present writer is indebted to ,mr4 ,j4,a4 ,vinter1 ,rossetti's fellow-student at the ,royal ,academy ,schools1 for some interesting reminiscences of class-room and studio life1 and to the ,rev4 ,walter ,tuckwell1 rector of ,stockton1 ,rugby1 for personal recollections of the ,pre-,raphaelites at ,oxford4 ,mr4 ,gerald ,massey has also assisted with suggestions and notes4 ,through the courtesy of present owners of ,rossetti's pictures1 several important drawings and studies are here engraved for the first time4 ,lord ,battersea and ,overstrand has kindly permitted a photograph to be made from the sketch in his possession1 8,mary ,magdalene at the ,door of ,simon the ,pharisee40 ,a similar privilege has been granted by the ,corporation of ,birmingham in regard to their monochrome1 8,the ,boat of ,love10 and the beautiful unfinished study of 8,our ,lady of ,pity40 ,i have also to acknowledge the kindness of ,mr4 ,moncure ,d4 ,conway1 in giving access to the fine study of the 8,head of ,christ0 in his collection1 and1 by no means least1 of ,mr4 ,theodore ,watts1 in the matter of his two superb crayons1 8,the ,day-dream0 and 8,pandora40 ,the 8,beata ,beatrix0 and 8,ecce ,ancilla ,domini0 are from the now familiar paintings in the ,national ,gallery4 ,,esther ,,wood4 ,,hampstead1 ,february1 #ahid4 ,,contents4 ,,chapter ,i4 ,,the ,,preparation ,,for ,,reform ,,in ,,art4 ,,page ,constable prophecies the ,decay of ,english ,art--,the ,new ,impulse from ,italy--,the ,english ,renaissance of #ahej-- ,rossetti and the ,specialistic ,temperament--,classicism of the ,eighteenth ,century--,influence of the ,french ,revolution-- ,revival of ,romance--,contrast between ,medival and ,modern ,romance--,pessimism in ,pre-,raphaelite ,painting--,nature as a ,background--,moral ,significance of the ,change #a ,,chapter ,,ii4 ,,the ,,renaissance ,,of ,,the ,,nineteenth ,,century4 ,childhood of ,rossetti--,religious and ,literary ,influences--,art ,training--,conflict between ,imagination and ,technique-- ,friendship with ,millais and ,holman ,hunt--,the ,westminster ,hall ,competitions--,ford ,madox ,brown--,influence of ,ruskin's 8,modern ,painters0--,the ,early ,italian ,masters--,the ,renaissance in ,medival ,europe--,relation of ,paganism to ,christianity--,revival of ,hellenism1 and blending of ,classic with ,romantic ,art--,growth of ,technique and ,return to ,convention--,the ,rule of the ,raphaelesque #ah ,,chapter ,,iii4 ,,the ,,pre-,,raphaelite ,,brotherhood4 ,the ,revolt from the ,raphaelesque--,influence of ,keats and the ,romantic ,poets--,the ,pre-,raphaelite ,brothers and their ,early work--,travels of ,rossetti with ,hunt--,publication of 8,the ,germ0--,hunt and ,millais in the ,royal ,academy--,ruskin's letters to the 8,times0--,pre-,raphaelitism at ,liverpool--,the ,pre-,raphaelites as ,colourists #ef ,,chapter ,,iv4 ,,period ,,of ,,transition4 ,influence of ,browning and ,tennyson--,comparison of ,rossetti and ,browning--,influence of ,dante--,introduction to ,miss ,siddal--,rossetti's ,water-,colours--,madox ,brown and ,romantic ,realism--,the ,dispersal of the ,brotherhood--,departure of ,woolner--,ideals of ,portraiture--,rossetti and ,public ,exhibitions--,death of ,deverell--,rossetti's ,friendship with ,ruskin--,apostasy of ,millais--,the ,rank and ,file of the ,movement--,relation to ,foreign ,schools #ib ,,chapter ,v4 ,,later ,,developments ,,of ,,the ,,movement4 ,the ,pre-,raphaelites as ,book-,illustrators--,moxon's 8,tennyson0-- ,the 8,oxford and ,cambridge ,magazine0--,the ,oxford ,frescoes-- ,oxford ,patrons of ,millais and ,hunt--,departure of ,hunt for ,palestine--,the ,pictures of ,madox ,brown--,further ,developments of ,rossetti's ,painting--,marriage and ,bereavement--8,beata ,beatrix0--,replicas--,life at ,chelsea--,later ,models--,designs for ,stained ,glass--,visit to ,penkill--8,dante's ,dream0--,publication and ,reception of the 8,poems0--,paintings of ,rossetti's ,last ,decade--,death at ,birchington #acf ,,chapter ,,vi4 ,,treatment ,,of ,,religious ,,subjects4 ,the ,re-birth of ,religious ,art--8,god1 ,immortality1 ,duty0--,the ,pre-,raphaelites and the ,reconstruction of ,christianity--,the ,halo in ,painting--,ideals of ,womanhood--8,the ,girlhood of ,mary ,virgin0 and 8,ecce ,ancilla ,domini0--,the ,problem of ,suffering--8,christ in the ,house of ,his ,parents10 0,the ,passover in the ,holy ,family10 8,the ,shadow of ,death10 8,the ,scapegoat0--,hunt's ,symbolism--8,the ,light of the ,world0-- ,rossetti's ,symbolism--8,mary ,magdalene at the ,door10 and 8,mary in the ,house of ,john0--,the ,idea of ,victory through ,suffering--,bethlehem ,gate0-- 8,the ,triumph of the ,innocents0-- ,the ,spirit of ,inquiry--8,christ in the ,temple0--,the ,atonement--8,the ,infant ,christ ,adored0--,comparison with ,madox ,brown and ,burne-,jones--8,the ,entombment0--8,the ,tree of ,life0 #aif ,,chapter ,,vii4 ,,treatment ,,of ,,medi,,val ,,and ,,modern ,,romance4 ,the ,christian ,element in ,neo-,hellenism and ,romance--8,how they ,met ,themselves0 and 8,michael ,scott's ,wooing0--,medivalism and ,romantic ,love--8,romeo and ,juliet0 and 8,ophelia0-- ,millais's ,romantic ,landscapes--8,the ,woodman's ,daughter10 8,the ,blind ,girl10 8,the ,vale of ,rest10 8,autumn ,leaves0-- ,keats's 8,isabella0--,tennyson's 8,mariana0 and 8,idylls of the ,king0--,the ,idea of ,retribution--8,king ,arthur's ,tomb10 8,paolo and ,francesca10 8,death of ,lady ,macbeth10 8,the ,awakening ,conscience10 8,hesterna ,rosa10 8,the ,gate of ,memory10 8,found10 8,psyche10 8,proserpine10 8,pandora0--,the ,idea of ,duty--8,the ,hugenot10 8,the ,black ,brunswicker10 8,claudio and ,isabella0--,old and ,new ,chivalry-- 8,sir ,isumbras0 and 8,the ,rescue0--8,the ,merciful ,knight10 8,st4 ,agnes' ,eve0--,ideal and ,platonic ,love--8,the ,salutation of ,beatrice10 8,the ,boat of ,love10 8,beata ,beatrix10 8,dante's ,dream10 8,our ,lady of ,pity0 #bbb ,,chapter ,,viii4 ,,the ,,poetry ,,of ,,dante ,,rossetti4 ,the 8,pre-,raphaelite0 in ,literature--,the ,complexity of ,talent in an ,age of ,re-birth--,the ,restoration of ,romance in ,england--,the ,latin and the ,saxon in ,rossetti--,latin ,diction for the ,sonnets as ,reflective ,poetry--,saxon ,diction for the ,ballads as ,dramatic ,poetry--8,the ,house of ,life0--,treatment of ,romantic ,love--,illustrations of ,sonnet-,structure-- ,miscellaneous ,lyrics-- 8,the ,portrait10 8,the ,stream's ,secret10 8,dante at ,verona10 8,the ,staff and ,scrip10--,the ,ballads--8,the ,white ,ship10 8,the ,king's ,tragedy10 8,sister ,helen10 8,rose ,mary10 8,the ,bride's ,prelude10 8,the ,blessed ,damozel0--8,a ,last ,confession0--8,jenny0--,relation of ,rossetti's ,poetry to his ,painting #bei ,,list ,,of ,,illustrations4 ,,page ,,the ,,day-,,dream ,frontispiece ,,ecce ,,ancilla ,,domini #gh ,,mary ,,magdalene ,,at ,,the ,,door ,,of ,,simon ,,the ,,pharisee #aaf ,,pandora #aeg ,,beata ,,beatrix #afb ,,the ,,boat ,,of ,,love #ahj ,,head ,,of ,,christ 7,,study ,,for 8,,mary ,,magdalene07 #bad ,,our ,,lady ,,of ,,pity #bef ,,dante ,,rossetti ,,and ,,the ,,pre-,,raphaelite ,,movement4 ,,chapter ,i4 ,,the ,,preparation ,,for ,,reform ,,in ,,art4 ,constable prophesies the ,decay of ,english ,art--,the new ,impulse from ,italy--,the ,english ,renaissance of #ahej--,rossetti and the ,specialistic ,temperament--,classicism of the ,eighteenth ,century--,influence of the ,french ,revolution--,revival of ,romance--,distinction between ,medival and ,modern ,romance--,pessimism in ,pre-,raphaelite ,painting--,nature as a ,background--,moral ,significance of the ,change4 ,a study of the ,pre-,raphaelite movement in ,england at the zenith of the nineteenth century opens up perhaps a wider field for controversy in the ethics of art than is afforded by any other phase of modern painting4 ,between the ridicule which1 for the most part1 greeted ,rossetti's first picture1 8,the ,girlhood of ,mary ,virgin10 in #ahdi1 and the enthusiastic homage which exalted him1 thirty years later1 to the dominance not merely of a school1 but almost of a religion1 lies a ground of infinite question and dispute1 still awaiting the historian who shall adjust the issues of the strife to the main thought-current of the period4 8,in thirty years10 said ,constable in #ahba1 8,english art will have ceased to exist40 ,the words were significant of that first stirring of weariness and discontent which precedes either a collapse or a revolution4 ,it was impossible that the conventions of the eighteenth century1 persisting in pictorial art long after they had been cast off by literature1 should suffice for an age which had wholly outgrown the conceptions of life on which they were founded4 ,landscape and portraiture1 however enriched by the last gleams of a flickering classicism in the genius of a ,turner1 a ,lawrence1 or a ,constable1 were still in the 8bondage of corruption0 to traditional schools4 ,turner1 indeed1 is too great to be bracketed with his contemporaries1 or with the pioneers of the ,pre-,raphaelite movement4 ,he stands as much alone as ,titian4 ,but the thrall of the conventional1 of the accepted canons of what should be perceived and conceived1 and how things ought to look in pictures1 lay yet upon ,english art4 ,one other painter1 a solitary and uncouth herald of the new day1 holds a unique position in that transition period4 ,blake alone1 working his fantastic will like a sanctified ,rabelais run riot in all supernal things1 discerned weird glimpses of the coming light2 such glimpses as ,chatterton1 in the world of poetry1 caught brokenly before the neo- romantic dawn4 ,posterity may decide that the catastrophe thus prophesied by ,constable was only averted by the grafting of an ,italian genius upon ,english stock1 and that to the country of the ,great ,renaissance ,england owes--at least in the field of painting--her own ,renaissance of the nineteenth century4 ,spontaneous as was the impulse of revolt in kindred minds1 and worthily as it issued in the hands of others1 the supreme achievement of the ,pre-,raphaelite movement abides with ,dante ,gabriel ,rossetti4 ,without him there might have been--and indeed was already begun--a breaking up of the old pictorial conventions2 an experiment both significant and fruitful in contemporary art4 ,failing this ready soil1 the genius brought over by ,rossetti from a ,latin race could hardly have been naturalized as it was in early life by interchange of thought and method with fellow-schismatics from the ,english schools4 ,but whether that vital change of spirit which found its fullest expression in the ,pre- ,raphaelite movement would have produced anything like its present results independently of ,rossetti1 is a question still entangled in that injudicial partisanship of opinion from which no contemporary judgment can quite shake itself free4 ,a final estimate of ,rossetti's debt to his comrades1 and of the original and intrinsic merit both of their own work and of his1 is beyond the reach of the present century4 ,meanwhile1 a verdict of no inconsiderable weight is available in the words of ,ruskin3 8,i believe ,rosetti's name should be placed first on the list of men who have raised and changed the spirit of modern art2 raised in absolute attainment1 changed in the direction of temper40 ,probably1 if one were called upon to name a score of typical pictures of the ,pre-,raphaelite ,school1 the first rough catalogue rising to the lips would be strangely inadequate to the question4 ,rossetti's 8,girlhood of ,mary ,virgin10 8,ecce ,ancilla ,domini10 8,found10 8,beata ,beatrix10 8,dante's ,dream10 and 8,the ,blessed ,damozel20 ,madox ,brown's 8,the ,last of ,england10 8,the ,entombment10 and 8,romeo and ,juliet20 ,holman ,hunt's 8,christ in the ,temple10 8,the ,scapegoat10 and 8,the ,light of the ,world20 ,millais's 8,eve of ,st4 ,agnes10 8,a ,huguenot10 and 8,ophelia20--these1 if among the most familiar to ,english eyes1 are but a small fraction of the product of that fruitful thirty years1 leaving altogether out of count the later and important work of ,g4,f4 ,watts and ,e4 ,burne-,jones1 to say nothing of such worthy adherents as ,arthur ,hughes1 ,james ,collinson1 ,henry ,wallis1 ,walter ,deverell1 ,j4,m4 ,strudwick1 and others who fairly claim the shadow of the ,pre-,raphaelite wing4 ,yet even in so imperfect a group the student may read at least the dominant features of the painting1 and especially in the work of ,dante ,gabriel ,rossetti4 ,here for the first time in ,english art is colour supreme1 triumphant1 as in ,titian2 form ethereal and chastened1 like the visions of a ,fra ,angelico2 subjects1 rather than objects1 set forth in so direct and often crude an imagery2 not figures merely1 but symbols2 fragments of human history1 actual and urgent1 full of problems and wonders1 weighty with meanings and desires4 ,the draped and ordered models of the past--the ,ladies ,sophia1 ,elizabeth1 and ,lavinia as the three ,graces1 and the ,countess ,agatha as a species of ,muse--have given place to a new 8dream of fair women10 not posing or self-conscious1 but as if caught and painted unaware2 knights like young monks1 sad-eyed but alert in a rapt sobriety2 ,madonnas more human than angelic1 with the sweet cares of womanhood upon them all2 ,christs neither new-born nor dying1 but seen in full child-life and manhood1 artless and simple and strong4 ,here1 certainly1 is the utterance of men who if they have not looked broadly over life have at least seen deeply into it1 and concerned themselves not so much with its rare crises as with the permanent conditions and problems of human experience4 ,it is easily argued that all criticism1 all appreciation even1 resolves itself ultimately into a question of temperament4 ,to some minds1 and these not the least discriminate1 the very limitations and extravagances of ,pre-,raphaelitism appeal with a peculiar force4 ,there are whole aspects of life which ,romance1 if it touch1 can never transfigure4 ,the passionate1 brooding loveliness of ,rossetti's women1 the remote and subtle pathos of ,holman ,hunt1 the dreamy and yet vivid tenderness of ,millais's earlier style1--these are not qualities of universal charm3 they are the outcome of special moods and conditions which find neither voice nor answer save in the channels they themselves create4 ,it is only given to a rarely catholic genius--a ,shakespeare1 a ,handel1 or a ,raphael-- to move1 as it were1 the broad currents of common feeling1 and to command the general sympathies of the educated world4 ,artists of more distinctive and personal quality--a ,shelley in poetry1 a ,chopin in music1 or a ,rossetti in painting--will rather gain each an elect circle of interpreters through whom to sway less immediately the thought of their generation2 the more so since in the realm of the fine arts is felt most potently the growing tendency to specialize both thought and utterance in the tension of modern life4 8,our age10 it has been aptly said1 8has seen a specialization of emotions as well as of studies and industries4 ,let us not then expect all things from any man4 ,let us welcome the best representative of every mood of the mind40#a ,the private life of ,dante ,gabriel ,rossetti1 though leaving to those who loved him an inexhaustible harvest of tender and pathetic memories1 was outwardly uneventful enough1 save for the one romance and tragedy of his early manhood by which he is vaguely known to the outer world4 ,but behind the veil of recordable history1 few artists have suffered greater mental vicissitudes in a lifetime of half a century1 or have lived at such high spiritual pressure and imaginative strain4 ,london-born and ,london-bred though he was1 the force of his ,italian parentage and temperament isolated him--save for a very few congenial spirits--in an alien world2 and though his work in painting and poetry was largely ,saxonized by training and environment1 the man himself was oppressed with the burden of an imagination steeped in the very soul of medival ,florentine romance4 ,his whole nature was overstrung and at the mercy of physical and social 8weather40 ,memory1 daily experience1 his own conceptions and creations in design and poetry1 small incidents of life woven by his own feverish brain into actual calamity1 possessed him with a power simply incomprehensible to the average mind4 ,like ,sir ,bedevere1 striding from ridge to ridge in ,lyonness1-- 8,his own thought drove him like a goad40 ,at the last1 his death1 it has been affirmed by ,mr4 ,theodore ,watts1 was due but indirectly to physical disease2 primarily to the prolonged and terrible fervour of writing 8,the ,king's ,tragedy40 ,out of such conditions of artistic expression came a depth and intensity of feeling incompatible with wide versatility or range of vision4 ,such a temperament must either specialize or achieve nothing4 ,but it is the business of the historian to look behind temperament towards the deep and primal impulses of a nation and a century4 ,to him the sum of temperaments becomes the spirit of an age2 or rather1 the nation itself1 in the grasp of the age1 is conceived as a living1 thinking1 struggling personality2 complex1 problematic1 self- contradictory1 but strong to inspire the same loyalties1 the same aspirations1 as the old world found in ,rome1 or medival ,europe in the great mother-cities which were at once her burden and her pride4 ,to study a temperament like ,rossetti's in its relation to the intellectual life of the age1 and to ask how such a temperament was in its turn brought to bear upon some of the problems of that life1 is to be confronted with much more than a personality or a career2 is to deal with a wide and crucial phase in the history of a people4 ,for the ,pre-,raphaelite movement was much more than a revolution in the ideals and methods of painting4 ,it was a single wave in a great reactionary tide--the ever rising protest and rebellion of our century against artificial authority1 against tradition and convention in every department of life4 ,it broke out1 socially1 with the ,french ,revolution2 it found voice in the poetic impulse which followed it in ,coleridge1 ,shelley1 and ,keats2 it spread from ethics to politics1 it touched all morality and all knowledge1 and it affected the whole literature of ,europe from philosophy to fiction and from the drama to the lyric poem4 ,schumann and ,chopin breathed it into music2 ,darwin1 re-forming the world of science1 laid in the doctrine of evolution the foundations of the new cosmogony4 ,it remained for painting1 the youngest of the arts1 to enter last into the van of progress and take its stand against the classic and orthodox scholasticism now discredited and void4 ,not that the classicism of eighteenth century art was without a beauty and a meaning of its own4 ,it was at least the relic of a noble ideal1 the outworn garment of a spirit once vigorous and sincere4 ,the true classic temper--the mental ordering of the visible world into types and models according to academic rule--is the natural outgrowth of man's effort to select and classify those objects around him which it gives him pleasure to contemplate4 ,the 8choosing-spirit0 of an age--its preference for certain aspects of life and indifference to other aspects--embodies itself in set forms and modes of artistic expression which are accepted by that age as sufficient and final1 and stereotyped by common usage into conventions from which1 in the progress of a growing people1 all vitality gradually ebbs away4 ,just as in science or philosophy the theories and methods of authoritative men are established as 8classic0 till fresh facts and fresh problems come to light1 so in literature1 in music1 and in painting1 certain types and modes are adopted by general consent as the fit vehicles for the thought to be expressed1 and these persist1 by force of authority and usage1 into a new age bringing new ideas into play and seeing the subject-matter of all art--namely life itself--in a new light4 ,thus the accepted canons of art1 which were at first the natural reflection of the highest culture of the period1 become at last the barren dogmas of an outgrown habit of mind4 ,the thought of the people has outrun the language of the schools4 ,the strife of the new thought with the old language is begun4 ,such a strife it was that came upon the western world under the outward turmoil of the ,french ,revolution4 ,europe was in the mood for great reactions4 ,the vast and sordid materialism of the eighteenth century1 with its prodigious hypocrisies and its flippant sensuality1--its sentimentality even1 which1 as ,heine reminds us1 is always a product of materialism--was rudely broken up4 ,the disruption of the settled order of worldly things awoke men's dormant questions as to the divine order of things1 the moral government of the universe4 ,or rather1 the rejection of external authority was but the evidence of the rejection of authority within--the rejection of traditional standards of right and wrong1 beauty and happiness1 wisdom and truth2 and the demand for new standards for the criticism of life1 for new ethics1 new ideals1 new gods4 ,now the pure and lofty classicism of the seventeenth century1 as exemplified supremely in the poetry of ,milton1 was saved from materialism by the robust piety of a ,puritan world4 ,it was not until the beginning of the eighteenth century1 when the accession of imperial and commercial power brought with it a certain coarsening of the moral fibre of the nation1 that the 8grand0 style became petrified1 as it always tends to do1 into the grandiose4 ,a people nurtured in the somewhat tawdry luxury of the ,hanoverian period was not likely to take very serious views of life1 but was well content with superficial philosophies4 ,in the blaze of outward prosperity the inward vision grew dim4 ,art became the slave of tradition instead of the handmaid of a living will4 ,then the great wave of rebellion1 surging through the life of ,europe1 swept into the deep backwaters of imaginative and creative thought4 ,men born into the storm and stress of revolution1 and confronted with the great problems of practical life1 were driven back to question ultimate things2 were thrown once more upon the spiritual world4 ,and as the outward struggle spent itself1 its full significance weighed more upon the peoples4 ,the deep charm of the contemplative1 the reflective1 the critical1 fell once more upon the ,european mind4 ,so the 8classic0 temper--the love of order and authority 7degraded at last into mere acceptance of tradition and rule7--gave place to the 8romantic0 temper1--the temper of enquiry and experiment1 the sense of the mystery and the reality of life1 the openness of the mind towards spiritual things4 ,and with this new consciousness of the invisible world and all its significance upon the life of man1 comes the utter discarding of self-consciousness2 the repudiation of 8pose40 ,life has become too real for attitudinizing4 ,the first result of this change of spirit upon the art of a nation appears in the choice of subject for artistic treatment4 ,the painter begins to portray not merely things and persons but incidents and conditions2 to picture men and women as they are in actual life2 in short1 to state the problems fairly2 to see facts and examine circumstances1 in order to reach the solutions and the meanings1 vaguely guessed and earnestly desired by the soul awakened to the perception of the supernatural and the divine4 ,this was the initial task of the neo- romantic revival2 in this lay the primary significance of the new school of painting which appeared soon after the year #ahde on ,english exhibition walls4 ,and to do this it became necessary to set out1 as it were1 the terms on which life is lived2 to deal not merely with the beauty which man loves and the joy which he desires1 but also with the stern conditions of their attainment4 ,the struggle between the present evil and the recognized good1 the conflict of the soul with earthly bonds1 ,love baffled in dire cross-currents of fate and duty1 or wasted and despoiled in sin1 ,faith shaken by the storms of circumstance1 ,hope bowed down before the closing doors of death2 and1 on the other hand1 the glory of consummated joys 7though never without the under-thought of their transiency71 or the strength of human fidelity and endurance--these are the themes of the second renaissance4 ,it is hardly surprising that the considerable class of critics 7more numerous in the eighteen-forties than to-day7 to whom all seriousness is melancholy and all mystery painful1 should have dismissed much of the ,pre-,raphaelite work under the inaccurate label of 8pessimism40 ,to bring the mood of awe1 of sadness1 of perplexity1 into art at all1 and more especially to present serious themes with the directness of familiar life1 and without the stage-craft glamour of the heroic and the exceptional1 is1 in the judgment of such persons1 to be indisputably a pessimist4 ,yet from this standpoint we should have to exclude no small part of the greatest art the world has ever seen4 ,if we accept ,heine's dictum that no man is truly a man until he suffers1 we shall call no nation great in art until it is great in tragedy4 ,there comes with every awakening of an age 7whether in ancient ,greece1 ,elizabethan ,england1 or medival ,italy7 to problems new to the world at large1 or which the preceding age had lost sight of1 a straining of the vision towards ultimate meanings and purposes4 ,and the cry for light is answered often by a lurid dawn4 ,but the temper of ,pre-,raphaelitism differs both from that of ,greek tragedy 7in being essentially romantic and ascetic71 and from the medival mysticism of which it is to some extent a revival4 ,however sincerely ,rossetti and his comrades may have found their inspiration in the early and purest period of the ,italian ,renaissance 7as we shall have to consider in examining the name 8,pre-,raphaelite071 it was impossible1 in the middle of the nineteenth century1 to return absolutely to the medival habit of mind4 ,all that was best in the romance of the middle ages1 the passionate idealism1 the abiding sense of the reality of the unseen1 the self-abandonment of devotion to the transcendental and the super-sensuous life1 the exquisite childlikeness of spirit which comes of the highest maturity--all these indeed were regained1 but with a difference4 ,for the enigma of the universe1 regarded by the medival world as a mystery of faith1 has come upon our own age rather as a mystery of doubt4 ,the silence of the natural world towards man's eagerest questionings of the ,power behind it1 was to those pious souls only the holy reticence of an all-wise and all-sufficient ,god4 ,they accepted with a brave resignation what the modern world endures with a no less courageous but far less trustful mind4 ,therefore the much-debated mysticism of the ,pre-,raphaelite ,school carries with it a deeper sombreness than that of a purely medival type1 and makes the relations between man and external ,nature more problematic and obscure4 ,the sense of the impassive irony of ,nature behind the little drama of man's life on earth comes again and again into the dim vistas of landscape behind ,rossetti's loveliest women1 and into the mingling of scenic grandeur with an atmosphere of desolation in some of the backgrounds of ,holman ,hunt4 ,even ,millais1 the least subjective of the ,brotherhood1 achieves1 in 8,the ,vale of ,rest10 something of that subtle contrast1 half discord and half harmony1 between the glory and absolute peace of sunset and the dumb unquestionable night of death foreshadowed in the open grave4 ,the classic method of rendering natural background to human tragedy is rather to adjust the mood of ,nature to the subject in hand2 to depict natural forces either as warring 7as in ,turner7 in the blind anger and fury of the elements against man1 or assuming an aspect in harmony with his own pain4 ,but the romantic method finds more tragedy in the ironic beauty and indifference of ,nature in the face of human vicissitude1 and comes nearer to tears than the affectation of dramatic sympathy2 just as1 in great crises of suffering and doubt1 no anger wounds us so deeply as a smile4 ,of this special phase of nature-feeling1 a later artist1 of strong affinity of spirit with certain undercurrents of ,pre-,raphaelite thought-- ,frederick ,walker--is perhaps a greater exponent4 ,but the old-world ,nature-worship1 independent of human interest and moral significance1 is as dead in art as it is in science4 ,unconsciously perhaps1 but surely1 art in all its forms has cast off the yoke of the old cosmogony which the implacable ,time-,spirit has overthrown4 ,the criticism of life has passed from the self-satisfied1 the confident1 the epicurean1 to the reflective1 the questioning1 and the experimental stage4 ,where1 then1 is the secret of the changed attitude of ,english culture towards the ,pre-,raphaelite ,brotherhood8 ,what was it that was actually accomplished by this little band of young reformers with their visions of a world of beauty and meaning undreamed of in ,royal ,academy philosophy8 ,the controversy that raged for years round the work of the leaders--least of all round that of ,millais1 more round that of ,holman ,hunt1 and most bitterly round the work of ,rossetti--was it primarily over a technical question1 a matter of pigments and perspective1 of anatomy and composition8 ,if so1 the house was divided against itself and should have fallen1 for ,millais soon forsook 7if indeed he ever adopted7 the path of his early comrades1 and a total divergence in method and manner finally separated ,rossetti from ,holman ,hunt4 ,or was it concerned with underlying principles and purposes with which ,english culture had not for three hundred years been troubled8 ,was it essentially an ethical revolt2 the first impulse towards that fusion of ethics with sthetics which will be the task of the twentieth century2 the inmost stirring1 at the nation's heart1 of a new life which the intellect still fails to lay hold of1 and the laggard will1 for the most part1 yet resists8 ----- ,footnote #a3 ,f4,w4,h4 ,myers1 8,rossetti and the ,religion of ,beauty40 ,,chapter ,,ii4 ,,the ,,renaissance ,,of ,,the ,,nineteenth ,,century4 ,childhood of ,rossetti--,religious and ,literary ,influences--,art ,training-- ,conflict between ,imagination and ,technique--,friendship with ,millais and ,holman ,hunt--,the ,westminster ,competitions--,ford ,madox ,brown-- ,influence of ,ruskin's 8,modern ,painters0--,the ,early ,italian ,masters-- ,the ,renaissance in ,medival ,europe--,relation of ,paganism to ,christianity--,revival of ,hellenism1 and blending of ,classic with ,romantic ,art--,growth of ,technique and ,return to ,convention--,the ,rule of the ,raphaelesque4 ,into this atmosphere of revolt and aspiration1 charged as with electric forces of long-gathering change1 a little band of young painters and poets came1 when the time was ripe1 to play their part in the great ,aufklrung of the century4 ,students they were in more than the conventional significance of the word2 men of widely different endowments1 and of the most diverse mental quality1 but sensitive at all points to the drift of thought beneath the surface of the life around them4 ,their task it was to translate into art the message already proclaimed in poetry1 and to make1 even of the poetic vehicle1 a finer and more exquisite setting for the new evangel4 ,the greatest poet of their company1 if not in a literal sense the greatest painter also1 was born within a year of ,blake's death1--on the #abth of ,may1 #ahbh1 at #ch1 ,charlotte ,street1 ,portland ,place1 ,london3 the successor of ,blake in ,english romance1 yet an alien in the land of his birth4 ,rossetti suffered1 as ,m4 ,gabril ,sarrazin has aptly expressed it1 a double banishment2 remote alike from his country and his age4 ,essentially ,italian by heritage and temperament1 he belonged no less to the fifteenth century than to ,tuscany1 and bore about with him1 though perhaps unconsciously1 the burden of the exile as well as of the reformer and the pioneer4 ,he was as one born out of due time2 or rather1 let us say1 reborn2 a spirit anew-incarnate from the golden age2 brought back1 indeed1 from a still earlier re-birth1 so that men almost deemed1 as they saw his work and dimly understood its purport1 that one of the prophets was risen from the dead4 ,beyond his inheritance from the far-off past1 from the dormant but undying influences of the ,italian ,renaissance1 ,rossetti held from his immediate ancestry no mean estate of talent and of character4 ,his mother1 half ,tuscan and half ,english 7on her mother's side71 was sister to the 8,dr4 ,polidori0 known to history as ,byron's travelling companion and friend4 ,these were the children of ,gaetano ,polidori1 an accomplished and successful littrateur4 ,gabriele ,rossetti1 the father of ,dante ,gabriel1 was wholly ,italian1 of ,neapolitan family4 ,he also was a man of high literary tastes and achievements2 a poet of genuine quality1 and a patriot exiled for his political faith4 ,his popular lays1 as well as his personal activities1 fanned the flame of democratic insurrection under ,ferdinand of ,naples in #ahbj1 and three years later he found himself compelled to flee in disguise4 ,he left ,italy1 never to return2 but1 happily1 not without honour in his own country1 for1 a quarter of a century later1 a medal was struck in recognition of his services1 and a statue subsequently erected to his memory in the chief piazza of ,vasto1 ,naples1 which also bears his name4 ,in #ahbd ,gabriele ,rossetti settled in ,england4 ,he married in #ahbf1 and was shortly appointed professor of ,italian at ,king's ,college1 ,london2 in which adopted city--the great foster-mother of so much of the world's best genius--his four children1 ,dante ,gabriel and his brother and sisters1 were brought up4 ,trained from the first in the ,protestant faith1 though inheriting on both sides the mental bias of ,roman tradition1 the children entered early into the age-long conflict between the tender mysticism and spiritual glamour of catholic piety and the robuster spirit of intellectual truth4 ,herein lay the key to that strange mingling of rationalism and superstition which1 both in his poetry and in his painting1 has perplexed many critics of ,dante ,rossetti's philosophy4 ,hence came his insatiable symbolism1 and his acutely realistic detail2 his remoteness of vision1 and his keen alertness to present and actual things4 ,his own perpetual struggle between the real and the ideal1 his ceaseless strivings to reconcile the inward spirit with the outward sense1--or rather1 to set them in their right relations to each other1 the sense as the instrument and vehicle of the soul1--these were but the epitome1 in his own many-sided nature1 of the larger strife that ceases not from age to age2 only the battle-ground and the weapons of the fight are altered4 ,to the simple ,christian creed which they professed1 was added in the ,rossettis' household the religion of an ardent and unwavering patriotism4 ,from their earliest childhood the little ones were accustomed to hear around their own fireside high talks of national liberty and the popular cause4 ,their home1 unpretentious but hospitable as it always was1 became the resort of many a political refugee2 a gathering-place for kindred souls oppressed with the same misfortunes1 or fired with the supreme enthusiasm of a common ideal4 ,hither came ,mazzini1 the greatest patriot of the century1 and one of her truest seers4 ,all that was best in the young democracy of the mid-century1 its eager idealism1 its narrow but profound hero-worship1 its poetry1 its self-devotion1 was here brought before the children's eyes2 its coarser elements eliminated by the personal distinction of such men as ,gabriele ,rossetti loved to gather to his side4 ,the little circle was thus open1 in those crucial years1 to influences more potent upon art than was then apparent1 since the humanitarian impulse first manifested in political and social life had not yet adjusted itself to pictorial expression4 ,nor was the literary side of ,dante ,rossetti's genius less sympathetically nurtured in the home atmosphere4 ,his father was an enthusiastic student and commentator of ,dante1 after whom he named his eldest son1--a baptism strangely prophetic of his destiny2 of that fortuity of fate by which1 in after years1 bereft of love1 maligned by criticism1 robbed of health and power1 he was made partaker in the sufferings as well as in the glory of the great ,florentine poet4 ,thus was fostered in the young ,dante of a later day that love of old romance and noble allegory which remained both with him and with his younger sister--perhaps the choicest of our women-poets--as an abiding passion and an inspiration to the highest artistic service4 ,at the age of fifteen ,rossetti passed from ,king's ,college ,school to ,cary's ,art ,academy in ,queen ,street1 ,bloomsbury1 and thence to the ,antique ,school of the ,royal ,academy2 there to pursue the artistic training to which a strong inclination and evident talent had long called him4 ,rossetti1 however1 was a very wayward pupil1 and extremely irregular in his attendance4 ,a fellow-student with him at that time1 ,mr4 ,j4,a4 ,vinter1 well recalls one morning when the truant was taken to task for his absence on the previous day4 8,why10 said ,mr4 ,cary1 8were you not here yesterday80 ,rossetti answered coolly1 8,i had a fit of idleness40 ,but when the master's back was turned1 an interesting explanation of the avowed idleness was soon forthcoming4 ,rossetti pulled from his pocket a bundle of manuscript sonnets1 which he proceeded1 with impartial generosity1 to paste inside all his friends' hats6 ,fortunately for the subsequent peace of the hyper-sensitive and fastidious author1 none of these early effusions seem to have been preserved4 ,mr4 ,vinter's impression of ,rossetti was--like that of many who knew him in youth--that beneath a certain brusquerie and unapproachableness of bearing there lay an unbounded warmth of affection and a ready generosity and kindliness of heart4 ,but his delight in practical jokes1 his high spirits and his boisterous hilarity in the classroom sometimes put ,mr4 ,cary 7the son1 by the way1 of the eminent translator of ,dante7 to considerable embarrassment4 ,there was one song in particular which ,rossetti was never tired of singing2 and he sang it with all the vigour of his strong young voice1 almost to the nauseation of his classmates1--in praise of a certain 8,alice ,gray40 ,one morning ,mr4 ,cary1 entering the room1 besought him to abate his tune awhile1 for a clergyman had called with his son to see the school1 with a view to enrolling the lad as a pupil4 ,rossetti lowered his voice1 but only for a moment4 ,when the visitors appeared on the threshold1 his thrilling notes were heard again in passionate protestation of his willingness to die for 8,alice ,gray40 ,the school was visited on ,saturdays by ,mr4 ,redgrave1 ,r4,a41 who speedily observed ,rossetti's favourite amusement of drawing grotesque caricatures of antique figures round the margin of his board1 and protested that 8such liberties were hardly consistent with the dignity of the antique40 ,rossetti's outlining is said to have been very beautiful in effect1 though produced in a highly unconventional manner4 ,mr4 ,cary forbade charcoal outlines altogether1 but ,rossetti1 who obeyed no rules1 invariably made a thick1 solid charcoal line which he gradually pared away on either side with pellets of bread till he had reduced it to the desired minimum4 ,it is noticeable that one at least of ,rossetti's friends of this period1 and intimately associated with him in the movement which he subsequently led1 has always retained the hardness of outline which ,rossetti afterwards outgrew4 ,yet it must be admitted that with all his ardour1 his real though very fitful diligence1 and his sincere delight in his chosen profession1 ,rossetti never fully conquered that imperfection of technique in draughtsmanship which has been the stronghold of hostile criticism throughout the ,pre-,raphaelite movement1 but which in fact arose from the inevitable deficiency of a mind too impatient for ideas1 too eager for subject-matter1 to be steadfastly concerned with the science of expression4 ,that neither ,rossetti nor any other of the ,pre-,raphaelites as such have attained to technical greatness1 still less to technical perfection1 is a charge weightily preferred1 and not without reason1 but hardly of so fatal an import as at first appears4 ,it must be remembered that no new message comes to the world ready-clothed in the full grace of accurate and harmonious speech4 ,the voice crying in the wilderness is apt to be harsh and unmusical4 ,the visions of the seer are at first too vivid1 too bewildering in the fresh glory of revelation1 to be told 7if he would set them forth on canvas7 in any but broken lights and shadowy images4 ,in every art1 the gospel of a new epoch has been proclaimed with faltering speech and stammering tongue4 ,the torrent of denunciation outpoured on ,wagner's transgressions of strict form1 yet powerless1 as it has proved1 to drown his music1 was not more sweeping than the judgment of authority against the metrical solecisms of ,walt ,whitman's poetry2 nor has the storm still raging round the modern ,scandinavian drama been less fierce than that which overtook the leaders of the ,pre- ,raphaelite van4 ,obviously a certain measure of the faculty of expression is necessary if the meaning is to be intelligible at all4 ,our judgment of an artist1 though determined primarily by the nature of his message1 must ultimately rest on his ability to deliver it4 ,in ,rossetti's case it must depend upon the degree in which the greatness of his material can create a technique of its own1 and take the imagination by storm1 as ,rossetti does1 with those exquisite surprises of design1 those marvellous tours- de-force among his earlier pen and ink drawings1 or those southern1 almost tropical colour-triumphs of his maturity1 which were perhaps rather the divine accidents of genius than its habit1 either natural or acquired4 ,they were1 in truth1 inspirations of utterance1 wielding the imperfect instrument to their own high purposes4 ,the verdict given upon such achievements by the thoughtful world outside the charmed circle of the initiate--by that unlearned but not unworthy 8outer circle10 as it were1 who1 approaching art with intelligence and sympathy1 are yet without the knowledge to assess its technical worth--will always1 as we have already suggested1 be decided by the temperament of the spectator-- whether he be as peculiarly sensitive to beauty of idea as his neighbour is to beauty of expression4 ,and after all1 the supreme mission of art is to the great world of the uninitiate4 ,by the authority of its priests and prophets must its form and practice be directed and controlled2 but the final test of its greatness is not satisfied until the exquisite consolations of beauty1 the moral significances of artistic truth1 the proclamation of noble ideals1 are 8understanded of the people40 ,but the new gospel1 when ,rossetti entered the ,academy ,schools1 had only reached the initial stage of a 8gospel of discontent40 ,it was still negative1 indefinite1 unpromising4 ,yet even in that early phase1 the old1 simple instincts of the missionary spirit are often potent1 and fruitful in the development of ideas4 8,andrew 444 first findeth his own brother ,simon10 and 8,philip findeth ,nathaniel10--not designedly1 perhaps1 but rather by the spontaneous attraction of kindred souls2 not necessarily with the deliberate aim of a propagandist1 for it would be pretentious to credit a group of nineteenth-century young ,britons in their teens with a very exalted conception of their artistic mission4 ,there is every evidence that they were as unaffectedly boyish1 and even school-boyish1 as the most orthodox ,englishman could wish them4 ,it was well that they should not yet know the meaning of their own rebellion1 or guess the effect to be wrought upon ,english art by ,rossetti's meeting with the first fellow-student who can in any sense be called his disciple4 ,probably it was an impulse of purely personal affection1 or that magnetic charm of character which ,rossetti exercised over almost all impressionable natures around him1 rather than any deep affinity of purpose and ideal1 that won to his side a younger and in many respects more brilliant aspirant1 ,john ,everett ,millais1 who had passed through his two years' elementary training at ,cary's at a very early age1 and in technical proficiency was already far ahead of his new friend4 ,born on the #hth of ,june1 #ahbi1 in ,portland ,place1 ,southampton1 the first five years of his life were chiefly spent in ,jersey 7his father's ancestral home71 and the succeeding four at ,dinan1 in ,brittany4 ,in #ahch1 at the age of nine1 he was entered at ,cary's ,academy1 then under the direction of ,mr4 ,sass1 where his drawing from the antique soon won a silver medal from the ,society of ,arts4 ,in #ahdj1 at the age of eleven1 he entered the ,royal ,academy ,schools2 the youngest pupil ever admitted within their walls4 ,here he won a silver medal in #ahdc1 and four years later a gold medal for historical painting with 8,the ,benjamites ,seizing their ,brides10 shown at the ,british ,institution in #ahdh4 ,in #ahdf his first exhibited picture1 8,pizarro before the ,inca of ,peru10 appeared at the ,royal ,academy1 where 8,elgiva ,seized by ,odo0 was shown in #ahdg4 ,millais himself1 meanwhile1 had made acquaintance with an older and still more earnest student not yet pursuing the ,academy curriculum1 but for whom the future had in store a place second only to ,rossetti's in the movement which united and inspired them in their youth4 ,william ,holman ,hunt1 indeed1 may claim to have been earlier than any of his ,pre- ,raphaelite brethren upon the field of reform2 for in the hard solitude of mercantile life1 under the stress of poverty and amid the most uncongenial surroundings1 he had already thought out and pursued those methods of direct and veracious artistic expression which were afterwards enforced by ,pre-,raphaelite rule4 ,born in ,london on the #bgth of ,april1 #ahbh1 and destined by his father for commercial life1 the lad secured from chance companions some occasional help in the artistic studies which he loved4 ,he took a few lessons from a city portrait- painter1 and at last gave up his business career1 and threw himself upon his own artistic resources for a livelihood4 ,admission to the schools of the ,royal ,academy at that time was by a test as arbitrary and inadequate as the teaching to which it led4 ,each student was required to produce a drawing from the antique1 in chalk or charcoal1 laboriously stippled in the conventional style2 and in this task the half-trained and inexperienced ,hunt very pardonably failed on two successive occasions4 ,it was not until the year #ahdf that he was at last admitted as a student1 and at almost the same time secured a place on the ,academy ,exhibition walls1 where he was represented by a small picture entitled 8,hark60--a little child holding a watch to her ear4 ,it was in the antique galleries at the ,british ,museum1 while toiling forlornly at his trial-drawing among a host of similar candidates1 that he came across the more successful but sympathetic and genial ,millais4 ,the story of ,millais's friendship with the poor and struggling student somewhat older than himself1 and of the generous pecuniary help afforded from his own private resources to ,hunt at a moment when the magic portals of ,art seemed closed for ever against him1 has already been told by ,mr4 ,harry ,quilter in his history of those early years4 ,in the autumn of #ahde ,mr4 ,cary sent up five students1 including ,rossetti and ,j4,a4 ,vinter1 for admission to the ,academy ,schools4 ,his classes were held in high esteem as a means of introduction to that orthodox fold1 already regarded by many neophytes with impatience and distrust1 but offering at that time the only possible entrance to professional life4 ,both the competitors just mentioned were successful1 and the admission of ,holman ,hunt was independently gained soon afterwards4 ,mr4 ,vinter has a characteristic reminiscence of the opening day of the ensuing term1 when the freshmen were assembled in a class-room1 and required to give their names to the keeper1 ,mr4 ,jones4 ,when it came to his turn1 ,rossetti1 who was rather proud of his mellifluous designation1 greatly amused his companions and impressed the venerable official by slowly rolling out1 in his rich1 sonorous tones1 8,gabriel--,charles--,dante-- ,rossetti60 8,dear me1 sir10 stammered ,mr4 ,jones1 in confused amazement1 8,dear me1 sir1 you have a fine name60 ,a probation of three months was necessary1 however1 before the candidates were finally accepted as students in the ,royal ,academy ,schools4 ,it is doubtful whether ,rossetti ever finished his probationary drawings3 at all events he never entered the ,life ,school1 and does not appear to have passed beyond the elementary stages of the ,antique4 ,but whatever may have been the deficiencies of their early training in art1 a result of ample significance was now realized by the intercourse which united in close friendship the illustrious trio--,rossetti1 ,millais1 and ,holman ,hunt--who were shortly to be recognized as the prime movers in the ,pre-,raphaelite revolt4 ,there was yet1 however1 another reformer at work1 unknown to them1 upon the same problems as perplexed themselves1 stirred with the same restless discontent with the vain canons of conventional art1 and pursuing1 in his own obscure studio1 methods which came upon the younger trio as the revelation that they needed4 ,ford ,madox ,brown1 with whom they now became acquainted1 was seven years older than ,dante ,rossetti1 having been born at ,calais1 of ,english parents1 on the #afth of ,april1 #ahba4 ,he studied first under ,van ,hanselaer at ,ghent1 and afterwards spent two years under ,baron ,wappers at the ,antwerp ,academy 7#ahcg-ahci71 three in ,paris1 7#ahda-ahdd71 and one in ,rome 7#ahde74 ,in his twentieth year he married his cousin1 ,miss ,elizabeth ,bromley1 who died in #ahdf4 ,his experiences of the foreign schools seem to have kindled in him the same dissatisfaction with current standards of perfection as was gaining ground among his contemporaries at home4 ,at all events1 when ,rossetti was vaguely casting about for kindred spirits aflame with revolutionary fire1 ,madox ,brown was the poor and unknown painter of a few decorative cartoons exhibited during the eighteen-forties in ,westminster ,hall1 for a competition organized by the government with a view to selecting the best available fresco-work for the ornamentation of the new ,house of ,lords4 ,the competition was carried over several years1 and served in a great measure to define and organize the growing revolt against the tyranny of the ,academy1 under which1 as early as the year #ahdj1 the younger generation of painters was already beginning to writhe4 ,the leading ,academicians of that time were men whose names1 as far as the outer world is concerned1 have scarcely outlived their owners4 ,etty1 ,mulready1 ,maclise1 ,leslie1 ,herbert1 ,chalon1 ,cooper1 ,collins1 ,eastlake1 ,howard1 ,hart1 ,jones1 ,unwins1 ,patten1 ,charles ,landseer1 ,redgrave1 ,shee1-- who knows them now beyond the student and the connoisseur8 ,webster1 indeed1 has earned a more enduring fame1 and gained a secure if unpretentious rank in the portrayal of village life1 fairly comparable to that of ,mrs4 ,gaskell in fiction4 ,but for the rest1 even the few gifted and sincere aspirants outside the ,academy1 but still in the thrall of conventional methods1 such as ,cope1 ,dyce1 ,ward1 ,egg1 ,elmore1 ,goodall1 ,pickersgill1 ,hook1 ,poole1 ,stone1 ,martin1 ,haydon1 and ,david ,scott1 were but a heterogeneous group1 without clear aims or common aspirations4 ,the ,westminster competition attracted and developed new talent from independent quarters4 ,it was the first deliberate effort of ,english art to shake itself free from academic control4 ,its effect was to revive1 for the time being1 a decorative method noble in itself1 but still more valuable as a training in breadth and dignity of expression1 especially for the young artist to whom the fresco was practically a foreign language1 full of latent possibility and charm4 ,practice in fresco-work had a directly good effect on the technique of new and unknown men at the precise stage of their studies at which it was afforded them4 ,madox ,brown's style in particular was strongly and permanently influenced by such exercise1 and the competitions evoked from him a series of historical and dramatic genre paintings which won ,rossetti's special admiration4 ,chief among them were 8,the ,body of ,harold brought before ,william the ,conqueror10 which still ranks with the artist's finest productions of its kind1 8,justice10 a widow pleading before a ,norman baron1 8,adam and ,eve after the ,fall10 8,wiclif reading his ,translation of the ,bible to ,john of ,gaunt10 8,our ,lady of ,good ,children10 and 8,the ,infant's ,repast40 ,one fine cartoon from the hand of another artist also drew ,rossetti's delighted attention1 8,caractacus led ,captive in ,triumph through the ,streets of ,rome10 by ,g4,f4 ,watts1 a painter worthily representative of the noblest phase of ,pre-,raphaelite work1 though never openly associated with the movement4 ,he too had vainly traversed the desert of academic studentship1 as we may gather from his own nave record3 8,finding there was no teaching1 ,i very soon ceased to attend40 ,his picture of 8,caractacus10 however1 was now rewarded with a first-class prize of #cjj4 ,millais also competed in the exhibition of #ahdg2 taking for his subject 8,the ,widow bestowing her ,mite40 ,in the spring of #ahdh1 ,rossetti1 deeply impressed by the originality and power of ,madox ,brown's designs1 wrote to the artist and begged permission to enter his studio as a pupil4 ,mr4 ,brown did not receive pupils professionally1 but1 with a generosity which he showed to many an eager votary at that period1 he welcomed ,rossetti to his studio as a friend1 and from that time became one of his kindest and most valued counsellors4 ,at the date of ,rossetti's self-introduction to ,madox ,brown1 the latter was engaged upon a somewhat elaborate picture1 8,chaucer reading the ,legend of ,custance before the ,court of ,edward ,,iii402 and ,rossetti was invited to sit to him for the head of the poet4 ,hunt and ,rossetti were now working together in a studio which they shared in ,cleveland ,street1 ,fitzroy ,square2 whither soon came ,madox ,brown to encourage their tentative efforts1 and to aid them both with practical and friendly instruction4 ,and now a new influence from the world of literature came upon the little student-band4 ,it was the inspiration and stimulus of ,ruskin's 8,modern ,painters40 ,for ,ruskin also was at war with the old conventions that lay chill and heavy upon ,english art2 he too was weary of the dead level of triviality and scholasticism to which painting had sunk1 and saw with prophetic eyes1 through the murk of present life and the shadowy vistas of history1 a higher and attainable ideal4 8,modern ,painters0 struck the keynote of the coming change4 ,a fellow- student lent the volumes to ,holman ,hunt1 who in his turn shared them with his friends2 and reading together1 they found therein1 not only a sympathy for their own revolt1 but a definite guidance for their aspirations4 ,with the authority of the trained draughtsman and connoisseur as well as with the force and fascination of the literary artist1 ,ruskin declared for originality and truth in design1 as against the imitations and artifices of degenerate schools1 in a voice that would brook no compromise4 ,like ,carlyle1 his whole being was possest with that passionate scorn of pretensions and shams1 that hatred of formalism and of every species of cant1 which swept like a cleansing wind over ,europe after the ,french ,revolution1 and which1 if its immediate results were iconoclastic and disruptive1 was so much the better preparation for the reconstruction to follow4 ,ruskin bade men turn1 from the ,art of the past1 to ,nature1 and seek fresh inspiration at its primal source4 ,through ,nature alone1 he said1 they would reach truth1 and finding it1 gain also the power to interpret and reveal4 ,and ,nature was a jealous mistress2 only to a faithful lover would she unveil the exquisite mysteries of her beauty2 unto his ear alone would she whisper the high secrets of her soul2 she would endure no translator1 no partial and distorted reflection of her face3 the man himself must worship at her inmost shrine1 and learn her lesson there direct and clear4 --,a truism1 it seems to us1 who have seen the swinging of the pendulum still further in the naturalistic direction1 since the reaction in divers quarters against convention and precedent has carried many to the opposite extreme4 ,yet1 in the history of the world1 the demand for precedent and conformity1 the love of imitation1 the morbid hatred of novelty and the dread of original experiment1 which appear in almost every crisis of man's development1 exhibit one of the most curious phases of the human mind4 ,psychologists might argue at length as to the relation between indolence and cowardice in the strange game of 8follow- my-leader0 played by humanity from age to age1--and might attribute both to a vague and deep sense of the bitter cost of all knowledge1 and a consequent and not wholly vain tenacity towards things apparently knowable and known4 ,ruskin1 with a vision large enough to retain all that was eternally precious in the past1 began by recognizing the elements of real vitality even in the outworn classicism which was the occasion of his readers' revolt2 and led them thence to the higher places of refreshment and advance4 8,we must be careful10 said he1 8not to lose sight of the real use of what has been left us by antiquity1 nor to take that for a model of perfection which is1 in many cases1 only a guide to it4 ,the young artist1 while he should shrink with horror from the iconoclast who would tear from him every landmark and light which has been bequeathed him by the ancients1 and leave him in a liberated childhood1 may be equally certain of being betrayed by those who would give him the power and the knowledge of past time1 and then fetter his strength from all advance1 and bend his eyes backward on a beaten path2 who would thrust canvas between him and the sky1 and tradition between him and ,god40 ,again1 ,ruskin insisted continually upon the essential and supreme moral purpose of art as a 8criticism of life0--as a later authority has called it4 ,he made clear the relation between thought and language in painting1 wherein lies for ever the crux of art2 and pointed to examples of the contrast and the conflict between those two principles whereof the right adjustment is art's final aim4 8,most pictures10 said ,ruskin1 8of the ,dutch school1 for instance1 excepting always those of ,rubens1 ,vandyke1 and ,rembrandt1 are ostentatious exhibitions of the artist's power of speech1 the clear and vigorous elocution of useless and senseless words2 while the early efforts of ,cimabue and ,giotto are the burning messages of prophecy1 delivered by the stammering lips of infants4 ,it must be the part of the judicious critic carefully to distinguish what is language and what is thought1 and to rank and praise pictures chiefly for the latter1 considering the former as a totally inferior excellence1 and one which cannot be compared with1 nor weighed against thought in any way or in any degree whatsoever4 ,the picture which has the nobler and more numerous ideas1 however awkwardly expressed1 is a greater and a better picture than that which has the less noble and less numerous ideas1 however beautifully expressed40 ,thus the author of 8,modern ,painters0 did for his readers what was more helpful than all precept1--he showed them the high paths trodden aforetime by men of like aspirations after a similar revolt4 ,he led them back to an age which had seen the same struggle between the old art and the new2 an age in which the difficulty of presenting human life and its environment in faithful colours and in natural images had already been met1 and in some measure overcome4 ,that age was the mother of modern art in ,europe4 ,the fourteenth century1 waking from medivalism1 felt the first quickenings of the ,renaissance in ,italy4 ,to that momentous impulse of new life wherein lay1 deep-rooted in the laws of reaction and development1 the destinies of modern ,europe1 the historian of the ,pre-,raphaelite movement must turn if he would read aright the motive and the message of to-day4 ,for the impulse sought in the records of the past by the reformers of a later age was of a spirit kindred with their own1 though grappling with its problems under a somewhat different guise4 ,it was a revolt1 not from materialism as we commonly understand it1 namely1 the acceptance of matter as the sole and ultimate reality1 and a tacit or open disavowal of the spiritual life2 but rather from that more subtle and insidious form of materialism so often mistaken for its opposite--the asceticism of medival ,christianity4 ,to deny the dignity and sanctity of the physical as the garment of the spiritual world is surely as blank a materialism as that which makes the physical sufficient and supreme4 ,to see no spirit in the flesh is to be no less blind than they who see no spirit beyond the flesh4 ,the innate cynicism of the monastic idea--its radical faithlessness1 its utter distrust of the ,spirit's power to transfigure and ennoble the noble life of man--is sufficiently evidenced by the fact that the results of that idea upon the art of the nation were almost identical with the results wrought upon ,england by the materialism of the eighteenth century4 ,art became a fashion instead of a mission1 a cult instead of a worship2 it became the prerogative of a ruling class which conventionalized--as such must ever do--the spontaneous utterance of the many into the vain repetitions of the few4 ,that class in modern ,england was the bourgeoisie3 in medival ,italy it was the priesthood4 ,herein arose the narrow religiosity of the early ,italian painters1 no less than the ascetic barrenness of the dark ages which preceded them4 ,art had been subsidized by a ruling class1 however beneficent1 for its own purposes1 however sincere and high4 ,the gradual establishment of ,christianity as the state religion of the later ,roman period involved the repudiation--or at least the effort to repudiate--the whole intellectual or sthetic heritage of the ,grco-,roman world4 ,there is a curious pathos in the attempt of every vigorous outgrowth of human endeavour to disown the prior activity which gave it birth4 ,the ancient fable of the chick and the egg-shell is of perennial meaning and pertinence4 ,militant ,christianity marched forward wholly unconscious of its own vast debt to the very paganism upon which it thrust itself in holy war4 ,the novel fervour of asceticism had extinguished science before the end of the third century1 art in the sixth and seventh1 and the ,greek language by the ninth4 ,but the transition of ,italy from paganism to ,christianity was not a substitution of wholly new ideals for old4 ,it was the gradual absorption of all the permanent elements in pagan culture into a religion of which the germ only was brought from the ,hebrew world1 and which owed most of its strength and much of its weakness to the rich and heterogeneous soil in which it was planted4 ,the extravagances of medival ,christianity--its austere intolerance and contempt of the natural and obvious1 its demand1 in the first strenuous tension of novelty and triumph1 for the subjective and the transcendental life--breaking up1 when the strain was relaxed1 into a hard formalism of thought and practice--these were but the inevitable reaction from the grossness of a degenerate paganism whose vital force was spent4 ,the immense lapse of time occupied by the transition from paganism to ,christianity1 as ,mr4 ,bernard ,bosanquet ably points out in dealing with the issues of that change1 gave room for as many secondary waves of action and reaction within itself as did the movement of the ,renaissance which succeeded it4 8,from the first distinct breach in nave or natural paganism to the assumption of a definitely doctrinal and orthodox form of ,christianity1 there is an interval which cannot be reckoned at less than seven hundred years1 from the death of ,socrates to the triumph of ,christianity under ,constantine4 ,so far from being a new thing1 contrasting with the degradation of the pagan world1 the establishment of ,christianity was the issue of the advance of that world during four centuries1 and it was not thoroughly completed until1 in a further development of five centuries1 it had adopted from paganism the germs of almost all permanently valuable elements that the latter contained4444 ,the ,dark ,ages are not a proof that the great classical culture had lost its power for human welfare2 they prove only how long a discipline was needed by the mass of humanity before it could appreciate more than the first stammering misapprehension of its great inheritance40#b ,the dawn1 then1 of the ,renaissance in ,italy1 was the waking of the medival world to the sense of this lost inheritance1 yet to be regained2 this hidden dower of beauty and gladness1 and of strong and abundant life4 ,the old message of the ,galilean ,christ had to be re- translated1 as it has to-day3 8,i am come that they might have life1 and that they might have it more abundantly10--not a one-sided life1 not a spiritual life at the cost of the body1 any more than a bodily life at the cost of the soul1 but a life robust1 many-sided1 catholic2 harmonized at all points with what is good and sweet and fair in the physical world as well as what is high and pure and noble in the life within4 ,and that message led men back to the great first principles of conduct and consciousness1 till they were confronted afresh with the want of equipoise between physical instinct and moral law which is the root-problem of human history4 ,the struggle for existence in the animal world rises in humanity from a physical to a moral sphere1 and passes into a struggle for life4 8,history10 says ,buckle1 8is a record of tendencies1 not of events40 ,the first tendency of the people thus waking1 as we have said1 to the sense of their own birthright and heritage1 partook rather of the first of these two impulses4 ,it was a revolt against the spiritual exclusiveness of the monastic ideal1 and a recoil upon ,nature1--especially upon the apotheosis and worship of ,nature already achieved for them in the ,hellenic world4 ,the imperious demands of the physical life1 so long starved and neglected1 drove men back upon external things2 slowly to re-discover1 through outward and visible realities1 the deeper meanings of which they were in search4 ,the end of the twelfth and the beginning of the thirteenth century saw a new turn of the current of feeling towards liberty and expansion of the whole life of man4 ,the painters set themselves to humanize religion2 to bring it into relation with the vital interests of the so-called secular sphere4 ,and as the fine arts became emancipated from sacerdotal control1 the spirit of free culture spread into other departments of intellectual activity4 ,in the next century1 the revival of learning followed upon the emancipation of art4 ,literature1 religion1 painting and sculpture1 were infused with the same spirit of experiment and research4 ,art was brought into touch with scholarship1 and scholarship in its turn graced and dignified by art4 ,the essence of romance lies in its utter fidelity to immediate and present life4 ,its concern is with particular instances1 not with abstractions and generalities4 ,romance is primarily analytic and experimental2 classicism1 synthetic and positive4 ,romance is inductive1 classicism deductive in its reasoning4 ,herein romance--deemed for the most part antagonistic to reason and science1 approaches more nearly to the scientific spirit than any canons of classic art4 ,its root and base is in that patient observation of actual things1 that sure simplicity and directness of vision1 which is the narrow way to knowledge4 ,hence comes the realism of romance1--the realism both of the early ,renaissance and of its later maturity4 ,a dominant characteristic 7for instance7 of ,michaelangelo--the greatest and most fascinating personality of the whole ,renaissance period--was1 as his latest biographer1 ,mr4 ,john ,addington ,symonds1 has pointed out1 that 8he invariably preferred the particular to the universal1 the critical moment of an action to suggestions of the possibilities of action40 ,this feature of the highest ,renaissance work1 though it seem at first sight to disprove the general theory of romance as the meditative1 contrasted with the classic or dramatic form of art1 is really consonant with it1 since one example of one action is more analytic and reflective in quality than the suggestion of action generally4 ,our assertion1 then1 that the first manifestation of the break-up of the monastic system was a return to ,nature as revealed and worshipped in the ,hellenic ideal1 must be qualified by a recognition of another tendency modifying and chastening the first4 ,the second tendency was towards the reconciliation of the superb naturalism of ,grecian art with the ,christian spirit of self-discipline and heroic denial4 ,it was an effort after that ultimate balance and harmony prophesied 7to bring a modern instance7 in ,ibsen's 8,third ,kingdom20 the kingdom in which the realism of the flesh and the idealism of the spirit shall be blended into one perfect humanity4 8,it was a movement10 to quote again from ,mr4 ,j4,a4 ,symonds1 8towards that further point outside both ,paganism and medival ,christianity1 at which the classical ideal of a temperate and joyous natural life shall be restored to the conscience educated by the gospel40 ,the vision of this union was the inspiration of ,pre-,raphaelite art4 ,it quickened the hands of the painters to great tasks2 it stirred the scholars to a new energy of labour and of hope4 ,the poets1 interpreting its meaning for the life of a future ,italy1 began to speak one to another across the medival gloom1 as waking birds call and answer1 while it is yet dark1 with a sure instinct prophetic of the dawn4 ,thus the unruffled calm and dignity of ,hellenism was troubled1 in its re-birth1 with a sense of moral conflict and perplexity unknown to the ancient world4 ,a peculiar mysticism resulted upon literature from that revival of the ,platonic spirit which was initiated by ,pico della ,mirandola and his successors in metaphysical thought4 ,throughout the ,pre-,raphaelite epoch1 from ,cimabue 7#abd,o7 to ,perugino1 the master of ,raphael 7#addf71 the impulse of naturalism is seen adjusting itself1 through much crudeness of expression1 through many blunders1 solecisms of taste1 errors of selection1 to the great spiritual passion of ,christianity which was still warm at the heart of the thinking world4 ,there is1 especially in early ,renaissance work1 an effect as of divided aims1 or of methods long habituated to the old ideal and brought suddenly into the service of the new1--like ,heine's 8decayed gods1 who1 to maintain themselves after the fall of paganism1 took employment under the new religion40 ,the physical loveliness of the saints and angels of ,botticelli and ,fra ,angelico--the last of the purely 8religious0 painters1 in the common acceptance of the word--is hardly congruous with the loftiness of their themes1 and almost belies the spiritual intensity and rapture of thought which ,botticelli1 in later life1 drew largely from the influence of ,savonarola1 and infused increasingly into his own work4 ,giotto1 the pride of the ,florentine school and the dominant genius of the fourteenth century1 was no less profoundly religious than these2 but in the final roll of art he ranks rather as the first great ,nature- painter than as one of a distinctly ,christian lineage4 ,taken1 like ,david1 from the sheepfold1 he brought into art a breezy1 pastoral air1 and painted before a wide horizon under an open sky4 ,fra ,lippo ,lippi added to that wholesome strength and sanity of sight an even clearer perception of natural beauty and grace4 ,the glories of the physical realm1 in landscape1 in the power of men and in the loveliness of women1 were handled now with a growing boldness which outran the delicate timidity that had restrained it in the shadow of the ,church4 ,and with the enlargement of intellectual range there came a steady increase of technical power4 ,the skill of choice1 of selectiveness in art1 of composition1 draughtsmanship1 colouring1--in a word1 the science of expression1 was brought to bear upon the ready message waiting for the perfecting of its vehicles4 ,the adaptation of language to thought1 which was the task of the fifteenth century1 was achieved by the immediate predecessors of ,raphael in a measure unequalled in the history of the modern world4 ,and that such an adjustment should resolve itself1 as it did1 into a fresh conflict between the forces momentarily reconciled1 proves1 not that the success of the effort was spurious1 but rather that the struggle between thought and language in art is but one manifestation of the eternal striving of the ,spirit with the imperfect medium of the flesh4 ,but this rare consummation of harmony between the erstwhile conflicting principles of classicism and romance1 though reaching its highest point in ,leonardo and ,michaelangelo1 achieved in the ,venetian school a technical effect which appealed even more strongly to the sthetic passion re-born in ,rossetti and his friends1 as they looked back across the ages in their search for example and light4 ,in ,giorgione1 the creator of idyllic genre painting in the fourteenth century1 and in ,titian1 of whom ,rossetti himself was in due course the natural successor1 they found all the mystic sensuousness of the new ,paganism in a setting which1 to adapt a well-worn phrase1 revealed instead of concealing the soul within4 ,here1 at least1 was the apotheosis of colour1 which is itself a characteristic quality of all romantic revivals3 wherefore painting has always been specifically the romantic medium in art1 while the classic temper finds in sculpture its most congenial sphere4 ,classicism invariably compromises with the tints of nature2 it resolves the ever-varying hues of earth and sky into the formula of the spectroscope2 it tends1 in its purest and noblest phases1 towards marble and the statuesque4 ,here was the perfection of artistic language1 as ,ruskin would call it2 the delight in strong and full utterance for its own sake1 wherein lurks the perennial danger of greatness in technique4 ,with all its glow and glory of natural life1 the ,venetian school was primarily decorative in character1 and therefore merged the more readily into the gradual substitution of form for matter1 the general deterioration of naturalism into sensuality1 which overtook ,italian art after the decadence of ,raphael4 ,together with the more robust conception of the physical life which supervened in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries1 there came a change1 partial indeed1 but progressive1 in the ideals of womanhood4 ,the ,madonnas of ,botticelli were instinct with a warmth and sensitiveness unknown before in ,christian art4 ,if they were immaculate1 their perfectness was that of a ,god-possest humanity rather than of a humanized ,godhead4 ,their faces shine with natural pity and awe and tenderness and love1--the love of the true ,mater ,dolorosa1 sad with 8,the burden of the mystery1 444 the heavy and the weary weight ,of all this unintelligible world40 ,they see the shadow of the ,cross upon the holy ,child1 and their passionate life quivers before the ,death to be4 ,the same brooding sense of mystery1 the same large and intense compassion for the 8world- sorrow10 yet mingled with a certain austerity of outlook upon its strife1 is the dominant note of ,leonardo's masterpiece of a later date1 8,la ,gioconda0 78,our ,lady of the ,rocks072 often compared with that triumph of a more modern ,renaissance1 ,albrecht ,drer's 8,melancholia10 with which it shares in the attainment of perfect harmony between classic and romantic art4 ,yet the return of art in the fourteenth century from the angelic to the human world did not go far enough to affect the ideals of womanhood beyond this single aspect--the aspect of maternity4 ,the early ,renaissance painters did indeed humanize1 in conception and presentment1 the virgins and the venerable mother-saints of ,christendom2 but their imagination never concerned itself with what may be termed the independent humanity of womanhood4 ,they painted always under the sway of that central and dominant motif of the ,christian mythology1--the idea of woman as the receptive and passive vehicle of the ,god-man2 and never presented woman as daughter1 sister1 lover1 or wife1 apart from the concurrent idea of potential motherhood4 ,this limitation--unfortunately for art--instead of being removed by a further broadening of thought and vision as the ,renaissance proceeded1 was emphasized in the fifteenth century by the influence of ,raphael1 who cultivated and stereotyped his own ideal of the 8for-ever-motherly0 until--so subtle is the influence of fixed types in pictorial art upon the current standards of truth and beauty--the maternal function came to be regarded as the sole and sufficient object of a woman's existence2 and the conventional ,madonna-face of ,raphael became a bondage from which ,christianity has taken more than three centuries to set itself free4 ,for the advent of ,raphael into ,italian art marked the beginning of the degradation of the pure and wholesome naturalism achieved in the ,renaissance into a coarse materialism which in its turn degenerated into a false and shallow conventionality1 and had an effect infinitely mischievous upon ,italy1 still more so upon ,france1 and through ,france upon the ,england of the ,stuart and ,hanoverian periods4 ,it might almost be said that the greatness of ,raphael was the weakness of modern art4 ,the immediate result of a triumph in technique--of a great success in the wedding of perfect utterance to noble thought--is sometimes to produce1 in the moral atmosphere around it1 a sense of finality1 a relaxing of tension1 in which the soul is overpowered by its own conquest of the medium1 and loses itself in the facile freedom thus attained4 ,the disciples of ,raphael1 counting him to have achieved the highest perfection1 modelled themselves upon his manner1 and thence upon his mannerisms1 without question or reserve2 just as1 in metaphysics and philosophy1 the schoolmen argued from ,aristotle without any reference to the external world1 and1 bound in the thrall of his genius1 followed implicitly the narrow trend of his reasoning1 until1 entangled in theoretical cobwebs of their own spinning1 they lost altogether the use of the inductive method1 founded upon observation and experiment1 which is the only true basis of knowledge4 ,imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery1 but it is sometimes a fatal hindrance to progress4 ,its maleficence in the world of mental science is not greater than the mischief wrought in art by a spirit which does as much harm to the work of the copyist as to the reputation of the model4 ,as ,ruskin says1 8,all that is highest in art1 all that is creative and imaginative1 is formed and created by every great master for himself1 and cannot be repeated or imitated by others40 ,raphael at first-hand was always great1 often sublime4 ,raphael second-hand1--stereotyped1 formalized1 degraded by three centuries of imitations1 each more laboured than the last1--became vapid1 artificial1 meaningless4 ,the original inspiration was destroyed4 ,art lost its hold on ,nature2 and1 severed from that sole source of power1 fell into inevitable decay4 ,history repeats itself1 but with a difference4 ,man's struggle1 as we have said1 for balance1 for self-adjustment to the forces around him1 and to the greater forces within1 recurs in every age of the world's life1 but under conditions ever new4 ,the nineteenth century supplied such new conditions for the old task4 ,the ground that had long lain fallow was not wasted in its time of barrenness1 but made ready in unfruitful autumns for fresh seed2 prepared by silent and secret forces for a new harvest4 ,shaken by social revolution1 roused by the pressure of intellectual problems on every side1 ,art was confronted once more with the great realities of life and death1 good and evil1 and turned for guidance to the witness of the past3 as a soul1 once quick to action but long sunk in apathy1 awakes again to the mystery of the ideal1 and gathering itself together for fresh strife1 calls urgently upon the old wisdom and the remembered strength of yore4 ,in such a spirit did ,dante ,gabriel ,rossetti and his comrades turn from the dull abstractions of academic tradition1 and lift their eyes towards that golden age whose dawning answered their own cry for light4 ,not to the material and redundant splendours of ,raphaelesque art did they look for the inspiration of the hour2 not to the pseudoclassicism of the later ,renaissance1 but to the pristine freshness and purity of its youth3 just as we now look for the true significance of the romantic revival1 not to the ,postlethwaite of fashionable society1 or to the weak sensuality of a drawing-room stheticism2 not to the latter-day apotheosis of lust which is but a gross travesty of the vigorous naturalism of ,hellenic and early ,renaissance art1 but to the gracious innocence and seriousness of ,rossetti's 8,virgin10 the noble beauty and pathos of his dying 8,beatrice10 and the austere tenderness of ,hunt's sore-tempted 8,isabella10 confronting ,claudio's painful face with the set resolve of her impregnable womanhood4 ,so1 seeking and following all that was best in the past1 and facing1 with vision clarified by that high discipline1 the intellectual1 social1 and moral strife of the nineteenth century1 the young painters set themselves 8to disengage10 as ,sainte- ,beuve says1 8the elements of beauty10 and to put them forth in some sort of order and lucidity1 even if it were but in a tentative formula1 yet to be subjected to the tests of time4 ----- ,footnote #b3 8,some ,thoughts on the ,transition from ,paganism to ,christianity40 ,,chapter ,,iii4 ,,the ,,pre-,,raphaelite ,,brotherhood4 ,the ,revolt from the ,raphaelesque--,influence of ,keats and the ,romantic ,poets--,the ,pre-,raphaelite ,brothers and their ,early ,work--,travels of ,rossetti with ,hunt--,publication of 8,the ,germ0--,hunt and ,millais in the ,royal ,academy--,ruskin's ,letters to the 8,times0--,pre-,raphaelitism at ,liverpool--,the ,pre-,raphaelites as ,colourists4 ,the impulse thus given by ,ruskin1 in the minds of the young painters1 towards the larger spiritual life and vision of the ,pre-,raphaelite period1 was strengthened1 as ,mr4 ,holman ,hunt has told us1 by the almost accidental sight of a book of engravings from the frescoes in the ,campo ,santo at ,pisa1 which fell into the hands of ,rossetti and his friends while spending an evening together at ,millais's house4 ,to such aspirants as they1 8crying bitterly unto the gods for a kingdom wherein to rule and create10 the work of the early ,italian masters here set forth1 though already partially known to them in the ,national ,gallery1 opened up a new world to be conquered and explored4 ,in the suggestive rather than successful achievements of ,cimabue1 ,giotto1 ,ghiberti1 and ,masaccio1 they discerned the wealth of thought to which ,ruskin had directed them1 though the language was still in the course of adjustment to the meaning within4 ,one cannot but think with a half-amused tenderness of the eager experimentalism of the young schismatics1 shaking off from their feet the dust of academic propriety1 and wandering back1 half in jest1 half in earnest1 in the buoyant prowess of their youth1 to the free fields wherefrom --8the harvest long ago ,was reaped and garnered in the ancient barns40 ,it is a pleasant picture which rises in the memory1 of the diverse trio1 destined in after years for widely different paths of effort and success1 yet welded at first in the glow of a common enthusiasm of revolt4 ,it was impossible that they should perceive1 at this early age1 that the reaction in which they were united was but a preparing of the way for an artistic reconstruction which would demand from its leaders congruity of ideal as well as community of protest4 ,the principle of non-conformity may embrace almost opposite poles of doctrine and practice1 but the positive elements of a faith must possess alike the minds of its prophets if they are to pursue in permanent fellowship the goal at which they aim4 ,as ,george ,eliot has said1 8,if men are to be welded together in the glow of a transient feeling1 they must be made of metal that will mix1 else they will inevitably fall asunder when the heat dies out40 ,but there was as yet a strong practical cohesion between the grave and gentle ,hunt1 the brilliant1 warm-hearted1 and impressionable ,millais1 and the ardent1 mercurial1 and passionately imaginative ,rossetti1 whose personal magnetism was the immediate welding-force of the ,pre-,raphaelite movement4 ,rossetti's proselytizing powers1 and his inexhaustible enthusiasm 7at least in youth7 for dogmatic propaganda1 were indeed a source of some embarrassment and many disappointments in the progress of artistic reform4 ,the doctrine of ,pre-,raphaelitism1 however1 if we may so call it--namely that in the age preceding ,raphael would be found the touchstone of art1 grew up too imperceptibly through mutual influences and interchange of thought to be attributed as a special tenet to ,rossetti or any other of the student-band4 ,it was in the year #ahdg1 before the formation of the ,pre-,raphaelite ,brotherhood1 that the spell of ,keats had come with special power upon its future leaders4 ,rossetti1 an omnivorous reader of poetry1 had already perceived both in ,keats and ,coleridge the essential elements of the highest romance4 ,it is the more remarkable that ,chatterton1 now acclaimed as the herald of the romantic revival in poetry1 as was ,blake in art1 had no such charm for ,rossetti until quite late in life1 when the tardy discovery led to an exaggerated worship4 ,but in ,keats1 whose life 7by ,lord ,houghton7 ,rossetti1 ,holman ,hunt1 and ,millais had been reading together about this time1 they found the supreme example in ,english poetry of that attainment of harmony between the classic and the romantic temper which was their aim in art4 ,eager as they now were for subject-matter whereon to exercise the artistic principles as yet but crudely formulated in their minds1 they turned with new delight to the wonder-world revealed to them by the spirit of ,keats1 and looked with him through --8magic casements1 opening on the foam ,of perilous seas in fary lands forlorn40 ,they saw that the reconciliation of the flesh to the spirit1 which is the task of the second ,renaissance as of the first1 had already been achieved in poetry1 and was waiting its translation into pictorial art4 ,keats had attained that perfect blending of the ,greek spirit with the temper of romance which ,rossetti was to reach in 8,venus ,astarte0 and 8,pandora40 ,the first organized union of workers imbued with the ,pre-,raphaelite ideal1 and further knit together by a common enthusiasm for the poetry of ,keats1 appears to have taken the form of a cyclographic society1 in which the dominant spirits--,rossetti1 ,millais1 and ,holman ,hunt--were soon surrounded by a group of more or less gifted companions and friends4 ,the members were pledged to contribute original drawings in regular succession to a portfolio which was passed round for criticism by their fellows4 ,rossetti1 who liked to rule his little kingdom with an absolute sway1 seldom disputed by those who deemed submission to his imperious ways but a small price to pay for his friendship1 selected from ,keats's 8,isabella0 the following series of subjects to exercise the talents of the society3--#a4 8,the ,lovers20 #b4 8,the ,brothers0 7of ,isabella72 #c48;,good- bye10 7the parting of ,isabella and ,lorenzo72 #d4 8,the ,vision0 7,isabella sees in a dream the murder of her lover by her brother72 #e4 8,the ,wood0 7,isabella visits the scene of the crime and secretly bears away the head of her lover72 #f4 8,the ,pot of ,basil0 7she buries the head in her flower- pot72 #g4 8,the ,brothers discover the ,pot20 #h4 8,madness of ,isabella40 ,it does not appear that any member executed this exhaustive series of proposed sketches in its entirety4 ,the suggestion of subjects from ,shelley's 8,prometheus ,unbound0 seems to have been no less barren of results4 ,the only drawings from ,rossetti's hand that remain to us from that portfolio are an illustration of ,keats's 8,belle ,dame sans ,merci20 a study from ,coleridge's 8,genevieve10 over which he sat up a whole night1 completing it at daybreak1 and a sketch of 8,gretchen in the ,chapel0 from ,goethe's 8,faust40 ,the society included ,walter ,howell ,deverell1 an artist of rare delicacy and grace1 and a man of singular personal charm1 destined to play a memorable part in the life-history of ,rossetti2 ,f4,g4 ,stephens1 an intimate friend of ,holman ,hunt2 ,thomas ,woolner1 a young sculptor whose acquaintance ,rossetti had made at the ,academy ,schools2 ,j4,a4 ,vinter1 now well known as a portrait painter2 and such lesser though by no means insignificant lights as ,j4,b4 ,keene1 ,f4 ,watkins1 ,william ,dennis1 ,john ,hancock1 ,j4,t4 ,clifton1 and ,n4,e4 ,green4 ,it was evident that among the rising generation of painters1 long before the formation of the ,pre-,raphaelite ,brotherhood1--even before ,hunt or ,rossetti had entered definitely upon such art training as they ever had-- the revolt against the tyranny of the ,academy was already begun1 and even those least in sympathy with the ,pre-,raphaelite idea found themselves drawn towards ,rossetti and his friends in a common disaffection with the existing rgime4 ,moreover1 the success of ,millais1 who at the age of seventeen had gained the highest academic prize for historical painting1 and was already earning well with his book-illustrations in black and white1 afforded a valuable connecting- link with a larger circle of critics and sympathizers from whom were drawn some of the most faithful aides-de-camp of the ,pre-,raphaelite campaign4 ,the poetry of ,keats afforded at all events an inexhaustable treasure- house of subject-matter for the young painters1 not only in their first efforts towards the romantic revival1 but for many years then to come4 8,the ,eve of ,st4 ,agnes10 for example1 afterwards yielded the theme of the picture regarded by some critics as ,millais's greatest work1 as well as of the first important painting by ,holman ,hunt1 8,the ,flight of ,madeline and ,porphyro40 ,this was completed at ,millais's studio1 at his home in ,gower ,street1 early in #ahdh1 and exhibited in the ,royal ,academy of that year2 ,millais having been at work meanwhile upon his 8,cymon and ,iphigenia40 ,it was not until the autumn of #ahdh that a definite attempt was made to band together1 in a common purpose and under a distinctive name1 those of the little company of students and friends who were prepared to accept and follow openly the principle of fidelity to ,nature in general and to the romantic conception of ,nature in particular1--the conception1 namely1 of the physical world as the veil and vehicle of an immanent spirit1 fateful1 mysterious1 and occult4 ,an informal meeting was held at ,rossetti's studio1 then at #hc1 ,newman ,street1 and seven members enrolled themselves under the name of 8,the ,pre-,raphaelite ,brotherhood40 ,the union consisted of ,rossetti1 ,millais1 ,holman ,hunt1 ,william ,michael ,rossetti1 the younger brother of the painter1 ,thomas ,woolner1 ,f4,g4 ,stephens1 and ,james ,collinson--the least stable of the ,brotherhood and the first seceder from its ranks4 ,in the ,academy of that year a picture by ,collinson had already been exhibited1 entitled 8,the ,charity ,boy's ,dbut40 ,he was a painter of uncertain artistic calibre1 and of a lethargic and mystical temperament2 converted to ,pre-,raphaelitism by the ardour of ,rossetti1 but shortly forsaking his art studies and joining the ,roman ,catholic communion with a view of qualifying for the priesthood4 ,this ambition also was subsequently given up1 and1 thus vacillating between the church and the studio1 his probation ended in no particular career4 ,the remaining members of the ,brotherhood--apart from the leading painters--may be said to represent the minor literature of the movement4 ,f4,g4 ,stephens and ,w4,m4 ,rossetti have attained permanent distinction as art-critics1 while ,thomas ,woolner1 before winning his later fame as a sculptor1 gave in the form of poetry his chief contribution to the early propaganda of the ,brotherhood4 ,the rules laid down as to method in painting1--such as1 that every subject and accessory should be studied direct from nature1 and from one model--do not seem to have been stringently enforced3 indeed in one of ,rossetti's most rigidly ,pre-,raphaelite pictures1 8,ecce ,ancilla ,domini10 the face of the ,virgin was avowedly painted from several models1 while in that of the ,angel the artist has produced a curious blending of his brother's features with those of another sitter4 ,it is improbable that an aversion to the one-model rule1 which has been attributed to ,ford ,madox ,brown as a reason for holding aloof from the ,brotherhood1 had very much to do with his decision to remain independent of it4 ,mr4 ,madox ,brown was from the first in cordial sympathy with the movement1 and on terms of intimate friendship with its leaders1 but he foresaw the dangers of an artistic clique1 and1 perhaps1 the impossibility of permanent consonance of method between temperaments so diverse as those of the seven members enlisted4 ,nor was his own strong and individualistic style of painting quite in harmony with the manner of his younger friends4 ,he was pre-eminently an historical painter2 and the critical and romantic treatment of history1 though bordering very closely on ,pre-,raphaelite ground1 hardly came within the immediate scope of the ,brotherhood4 ,though frequently acknowledged by his later critics as the father--or sometimes the grandfather--of the ,pre-,raphaelite movement1 ,mr4 ,madox ,brown consistently disclaimed any such title1 and did so with no less justice than modesty4 ,at the same time1 his work was so intimately connected with that of the men whom he powerfully influenced and inspired that it may fairly be studied side by side with theirs in illustration of the dominant principles common to all4 ,in the autumn of #ahdh it was agreed that the three chief painters should select their next subjects from ,keats's 8,isabella40 ,millais1 at that time under the influence of ,hunt rather than of ,rossetti 7who indeed was still far from adopting any definite line of technique71 decided upon a scene depicting ,lorenzo at supper with ,isabella and her brothers4 ,the pensive and earnest face of ,lorenzo was painted from ,w4,m4 ,rossetti4 ,mrs4 ,hodgkinson1 the wife of ,millais's half-brother1 sat for ,isabella4 ,it would not be easy to disprove ,holman ,hunt's generous but weighty verdict on the finished picture1 as 8the most wonderful painting that any youth still under twenty years of age ever did in the world40 ,hunt and ,rossetti1 however1 were not so steadfast in their adhesion to the agreement as to the choice of subjects from ,keats4 ,hunt indeed planned1 and probably commenced about this time1 his afterwards notable picture1 8,isabella and the ,pot of ,basil20 but this1 though taking rank among the best examples of his earlier style1 was not finally painted until #ahfg4 ,he decided to finish1 for the next ,academy1 a picture already in hand1 8,rienzi swearing revenge over the body of his brother40 ,in this design the figure of ,colonna1 who endeavours to pacify the would-be avenger1 was painted from ,w4,m4 ,rossetti1 while ,dante ,rossetti sat for the head of ,rienzi1--and neglected1 in spite of much urging from his comrades1 to fulfil his own share in the 8,isabella0 project2 but pursued work upon the most original and remarkable of his early pictures1 8,the ,girlhood of ,mary ,virgin40 ,prior to this1 he had proposed1 and partly sketched1 a design entitled1 8,retro me1 ,sathana10 representing a young girl walking1 and earnestly reading1 in a cloister1 in the company of a venerable priest1 while the retreating figure of ,satan threatens her from the shade4 ,this conception was never carried out2 but it is probable that the now familiar sonnet bearing the same title was written about this time4 ,the only painting of any note hitherto accomplished by ,rossetti was a life-size and nearly half-length portrait of his father1 finished in this same year #ahdh1 and commissioned and bought by his godfather1 ,mr4 ,charles ,lyell1 of ,kinnordy1 ,forfar1 the father of the eminent geologist4 ,this was the only male portrait ,rossetti ever did in oils4 ,in his new picture1 8,the ,girlhood of ,mary ,virgin10 7called at first 8,the ,education of the ,virgin07 the face of the lovely child-angel was painted from a young half-sister of ,woolner 7though greatly modified1 if not wholly re- painted1 afterwards72 while ,st4 ,joiachim was taken from an old family servant1 and ,saint ,anna and ,st4 ,mary from ,mrs4 ,rossetti and ,miss ,christina ,rossetti respectively4 ,in the spring of #ahdi the ,pre-,raphaelite ,brotherhood held their first 8private view0 with three important pictures1 ,rossetti's 8,girlhood10 ,hunt's 8,rienzi10 and ,millais's 8,lorenzo and ,isabella10 duly signed and monogramed with the initials ,p4,r4,b4 after the painters' names1 ready for exhibition2 the first appearing at the ,free ,gallery 7formerly known as the ,chinese ,gallery71 ,hyde ,park ,corner1 then under the management of the ,association for ,promoting the ,free ,exhibition of ,modern ,art1 the other two at the ,royal ,academy1 where they were favourably hung4 ,rossetti's picture was sold to the ,marchioness of ,bath on 8private view0 day for #hj1 and ,hunt's 8,rienzi0 found a purchaser soon afterwards4 8,lorenzo and ,isabella10 sold for #ajj in #ahdi1 was bought in #ahhc by the ,corporation of ,liverpool for #a1abj4 ,a tour on the ,continent with ,holman ,hunt in ,september1 #ahdi1 gave ,rossetti fresh inspiration from the early ,italian masters and the best representatives of the ,dutch school4 ,the impressions made upon him in his twenty-first year by travel in ,france and ,belgium are recorded for us in the wonderfully vivid and sharply-cut vignette-poems of this period4 ,eager as ever for emotional experience1 and with the divine passion of hero-worship strong upon him1 his holiday among the great painters was a delightsome pilgrimage1 full of suggestion and stimulus for future work4 ,in ,paris1 the sight of ,giorgione's great idyll in the ,louvre1 8,a ,venetian ,pastoral10 drew from the young tourist a sonnet unsurpassed for sheer verbal colour and atmosphere by any of his later poems4 ,here1 too1 were written the great memorial sonnets1 8,place de la ,bastille10 and 8,the ,staircase of ,notre ,dame40 ,on the cliffs at ,boulogne ,rossetti wrote 8,sea-,limits40 ,he --8climbed the stair in ,antwerp church1 ,what time the circling thews of sound ,at sunset seem to heave it round4 ,far up1 the carillon did search ,the wind1 and the birds came to perch ,far under1 where the gables wound40 ,van ,eyck and ,memmeling at ,bruges1 ,leonardo1 ,fra ,angelico1 ,giorgione1 and ,titian in ,paris1 lacked no due meed of homage from ,rossetti and ,hunt4 ,it is remarkable that ,rossetti never visited ,italy1 nor even retained1 in later years1 the patriotic sentiment which had so strongly pervaded the home life of his boyhood4 ,on the return of the travellers to ,london1 a new development was proposed and accomplished in the public propaganda of the ,pre-,raphaelite ,brotherhood4 ,it was decided to issue a monthly magazine for the promulgation of ,pre-,raphaelite principles in painting and poetry4 ,members and sympathizers met at ,rossetti's studio in ,newman ,street to discuss the project1 and decide upon the title and contents of the manifesto4 ,the suggestion of ,mr4 ,cave ,thomas was ultimately adopted1 that it should be called 8,the ,germ40 ,the first number1 extending to forty-eight large octavo pages1 illustrated with etchings1 appeared in ,january1 #ahej1 published by ,messrs4 ,aylott and ,jones1 of #h1 ,paternoster ,row4 ,the primary tenet with regard to art was thus enunciated in the preface3 8,the endeavour held in view throughout the writings on ,art will be to encourage and enforce an entire adherence to the simplicity of nature40 ,it would be captious1 perhaps1 to argue1 in the face of so ingenuous an implication1 that nature is not simple1 but1 alas6 infinitely and fatefully complex without and within2 presenting to the seer's eye a tangled web of visible phenomena no less intricate than the secret woof of destiny whose threads are the lives of men4 ,to young minds1 as to a young world1 the vision of nature broadly outlined in generalities and clear with purpose is one of the fairest of illusions4 ,the sternest discipline of life is to discover chaos where we imagined order and lucidity3 to find interminable mazes and cross-roads for our bewilderment where in the morning mirage we had seen a plain path1 an open road to the ,ideal4 ,then we cry that ,nature1 and not ourself1 is altered3 that 8there hath passed away a glory from the earth40 ,happily1 this disillusionment was yet far off in the future of the ,pre- ,raphaelite ,brotherhood4 ,in the preface to 8,the ,germ10 a special claim was made for poetry in its relation to the principles of simplicity of expression already enforced in painting2 and with better reason1 since painting must perforce speak exclusively by the representation of visible things1 while poetry reaches directly to their inner significance4 ,for while the painter strives so to order and depict the phenomena around him as to arrive at some sort of moral simplicity in the effect of his picture1 the poet--if he be a seer--penetrates at once to the spirit of his theme1 and clothes it at his own will with symbolic or dramatic expression4 ,hence the application of the ,pre-,raphaelite principle to the writing of poetry was even more fruitful than in painting2 and produced in modern ,english ballad and lyric verse1 and even in the best prose of our own generation1 a swift and incisive directness of touch1 a broad and vivid clarity of impression1 never so fully effected in the pictorial medium4 ,the first literary dbutant in 8,the ,germ0 was ,mr4 ,woolner1 who occupied the opening pages of the ,january number with two short poems admirably illustrative1 within their unpretentious scope and modest aim1 of that nave simplicity in the handling of complexities--the eternal childlikeness of pure romance--which is inherent in almost all great art4 8,my ,beautiful ,lady0 and 8,of my ,lady in ,death0 were accompanied by an etching in two parts by ,holman ,hunt4 ,then followed an unsigned sonnet by ,ford ,madox ,brown1 and a paper by ,mr4 ,j4,l4 ,tupper on 8,the ,subject in ,art40 ,mr4 ,coventry ,patmore contributed anonymously a poem called 8,the ,seasons10 and ,mr4 ,tupper was also represented in verse4 ,criticism of contemporary poetry was afforded by ,w4,m4 ,rossetti's paper on ,arthur ,hugh ,clough4 ,the remaining pages were worthily filled by the two greatest poets of the ,pre-,raphaelite movement1 ,dante ,gabriel and ,christina ,rossetti3 the latter with 8,dreamlands0 and another short lyric1 signed 8,ellen ,alleyn10 the former with 8,my ,sister's ,sleep10 a characteristic example of his earliest manner1 written in the then uncommon metre since naturalized in our language by ,tennyson's 8,in ,memoriam10 and the wonderful prose allegory 8,hand and ,soul40 ,this poem--as verily it should be called1 with its rich and haunting diction and its magical rhythm of imagery--is almost the sole example of ,rossetti's strength in prose1 only paralleled by a similar composition1 entitled 8,st4 ,agnes of ,intercession10 of a later date4 8,hand and ,soul0 is largely autobiographical in its narrative1 being the story of a young art student of ,arezzo1 named ,chiaro dell',erma1 possessed by new and high ideals of the painters mission1 and stimulated to the better application of his own talents by the success of a younger comrade1--as we may well believe ,rossetti to have been stirred and impelled by the progress of the more studious and at the same time more fortunate ,millais4 ,the speech of ,chiaro in 8,hand and ,soul0 may be taken as a declaration of ,rossetti's artistic faith and principles at that period4 ,the second number of 8,the ,germ10 though no less interesting and significant in subject-matter1 did not increase the scant support accorded to the venture by the public at large2 and since the expense of such an issue was too heavy to be borne by the little band of young and struggling aspirants responsible for its existence1 the future of the magazine had to be seriously reconsidered by the ,brotherhood4 ,mr4 ,tupper1 however1 to whose hands the printing had been entrusted1 came to the rescue1 and gave 8,the ,germ0 a new lease of life under the title of 8,art and ,poetry40 ,the change did not serve to commend the somewhat crude propaganda to the mind of the ,british ,philistine1 and after the ,april number the issue was reluctantly given up2 but not until its pages had glowed with the first fires1 at least1 of ,rossetti's noblest poetic inspiration4 ,here first appeared 8,the ,blessed ,damozel10 for which we might surely paraphrase the words of ,holman ,hunt on ,millais1 and call it 8the most wonderful poem that any youth still under twenty years of age ever did in the world40 ,here1 too1 were the lyric first-fruits of his continental tour 7if sonnets may1 by elasticity of definition1 be included in lyric poetry71 8,the ,carillon10 8,from the ,cliffs--,noon10 afterwards called 8,sea-,limits10 8,pax ,vobis10 largely rewritten later and entitled 8,world's ,worth10 and the sonnets on 8,a ,virgin and ,child10 8,a ,marriage of ,st4 ,katherine10 8,a ,dance of ,nymphs0 7from ,andrea ,mantegna1 in the ,louvre71 8,a ,venetian ,pastoral0 7from ,giorgione1 in the ,louvre71 and 8,ruggiero and ,angelica0 7from the picture by ,ingres74 ,among other contents of 8,the ,germ0 and 8,art and ,poetry0 may be mentioned ,ford ,madox ,brown's paper on 8,the ,structure of an ,historical ,picture10 ,john ,orchard's 8,dialogue on ,art10 and ,coventry ,patmore's 8,criticism of ,macbeth40 ,mr4 ,f4,g4 ,stephens wrote under the pseudonym of 8,john ,seward10 and the publication was edited by ,w4,m4 ,rossetti1 then twenty years of age4 ,yet one more poet remains in the list of contributors1 ,james ,collinson1 whose somewhat desultory but genuinely imaginative lines1 8,the ,child ,jesus3 a record typical of the five sorrowful mysteries10 together with an etching by the same hand1 illustrate very markedly the peculiar phase of religious symbolism1 combined with half-ascetic1 half- sthetic melancholy1 upon which the ,pre-,raphaelites were entering at this period1 and which remained with one1 at least1 of their leaders1 as a permanent and dominating element in the artistic work of a lifetime4 ,but while 8,the ,germ0 was speeding through its brief career1 and achieving at all events some sort of apologia for the ,pre-,raphaelite ,brotherhood1 the leading band of painters were further expressing and developing their principles on canvas4 ,for the ,royal ,academy ,exhibition of #ahej1 ,millais had prepared two pictures destined to draw down upon himself the concentrated fury of that storm of vituperative criticism from the public press which raged unabated for five years around the work of the ,brethren1 and ultimately spent itself on their more or less worthy disciples and successors4 ,it is remarkable that the chief burden of the abuse heaped upon the ,pre-,raphaelites by the art censors of the period should have been borne in the first instance by one1 in some respects the most brilliant of the band1 who in after years departed more entirely from his early principles in painting than any other member of the ,brotherhood1 and gained thereby a far greater measure of general popularity than has been won1 or is likely to be won at present1 by any of his former comrades4 ,upon no example of ,pre-,raphaelite work were the diatribes of the press more scathing than upon ,millais's two pictures of #ahej1 8,christ in the ,house of ,his ,parents10 7often called 8,the ,carpenter's ,shop071 and 8,ferdinand ,lured by ,ariel40 8,men who knew nothing of art10 says a fellow-member of the ,brotherhood1 ,mr4 ,f4,g4 ,stephens1 8reviled ,millais because he was not of the art1 artistic4 ,dilettanti1 who could not draw a fingertip1 scolded one of the most accomplished draughtsmen of the age because he delineated what he saw4 ,cognoscenti1 who could not paint1 rebuked the most brilliant ,gold ,medal student of the ,royal ,academy on account of his technical proceedings4 ,critics of the most rigid views belaboured and shrieked at an original genius1 whose struggles and whose efforts they could not understand4 ,intolerant and tyrannical commentators condemned the youth of twenty because he dared to think for himself4444 ,intense and unflinching fidelity to nature1 ardent love for colour1 and a rigid resolution to paint the light of day as brightly as pigments could allow him1 were among the aims of ,millais1 who1 following the principles he championed with all his heart1 found his models among his friends of ,english birth1 and failing ,eastern types1 employed all his skill on ,british materials1 relying on the really devout spirit in which he worked1 and the poetic quality of his design1 to produce the effect desired4 ,he was sorely disappointed in this reliance40 ,no less sane a journal than ,charles ,dickens's 8,household ,words10 thus wrote on ,june #ae3--8;,in coming before this ,holy ,family you must discharge from your mind all religious aspirations1 all elevating thoughts1 all tender1 awful1 sorrowful1 ennobling1 sacred1 graceful1 or beautiful associations1 and prepare yourself for the lowest depth of what is mean1 odious1 repulsive1 and revolting4 ,you behold the interior of a carpenter's shop4 ,in the foreground is a hideous1 wry-necked1 blubbering1 red-headed boy in a bed-gown1 and at his side a kneeling woman so horrible in her ugliness that she would stand out from the rest of the company as a monster in the vilest cabaret in ,france1 or the lowest gin-shop in ,england4 ,the two almost naked carpenters might be undressed in any hospital where dirty drunkards in a high state of varicose veins are received4 ,their very toes have walked out of ,st4 ,giles's40 ,another writer likened the figure of the boy ,christ1 whose hand1 in the picture1 has been wounded at his task1 to 8a miserable child scratching itself against a rusty nail in ,seven ,dials40 ,to such criticism it might easily be retorted that the world is more deeply concerned to-day with the dark problems of ,seven ,dials and ,st4 ,giles's than with the life of any child in history1 save in so far as the latter may illumine and interpret the mysteries of the importunate hour2 and that the painter who so translates into present- day life the eternal tragedy of toil and pain as to press home to the conscience of a nation the daily re-crucifixion of the ,christ in its own vast labour-houses1--whose modern reading of the ancient tale suggests the divine potentialities of all childhood and the universal pathos of human love 8wounded in the house of friends10--has given us a greater picture1 and a more religious picture1 than if he had painted for us all the angels in ,heaven4 8,ferdinand ,lured by ,ariel0 may be taken as the first landscape produced by the ,pre-,raphaelite ,brotherhood4 ,it was painted--according to the rule-- directly from nature4 ,the background was taken from a spot in a park attached to ,shotover ,house1 near ,oxford1 where ,millais was staying as the guest of ,mr4 ,drury4 ,a lady who saw the young artist at work upon this subject distinctly recalls his application of a magnifying-glass to the branch of a tree he was painting1 in order to study closely the veins of the leaves4 ,this was a literal following of that patient analysis of minuti in nature which characterized the ,italian ,pre- ,raphaelites1 and is especially noticeable in the early landscapes of ,leonardo da ,vinci2 though he departed in his maturity from his former love of detail1 and began to conventionalize items into generalities4 ,even the lizards in the foreground of 8,ferdinand and ,ariel0 were faithful portraits of certain small favourites brought by ,millais from ,jersey to serve their turn among his sitters4 ,the friend who sat for ,ferdinand relates that the painting of the face1 though a marvel of finish1 and perfect in technique1 was accomplished in a single sitting4 ,a detailed pencil drawing was already on the canvas1 and the laying on of the colour occupied only five hours4 ,the vivid colouring of the whole picture1 and the use of metal instead of pigment for the gold-cloth worn by ,ferdinand 7after the method of the early ,italian masters1 followed also by ,rossetti in 8,ecce ,ancilla ,domini071 were the subject of scarcely less vehement denunciation by the critics than the painter's treatment of the ,holy ,family4 8,we do not want10 they said1 8to see ,ariel and the ,spirits of the enchanted isle in the attitudes and shapes of green goblins1 or the gallant ,ferdinand twisted like a posture-master by ,albrecht ,drer4444 ,a ,ferdinand of most ignoble physiognomy is being lured by a pea-green monster1 intended for ,ariel1 whilst a row of sprites1 such as it takes a ,millais to devise1 watch the operation with turquoise eyes4 ,it would occupy more room than the thing is worth to expose all the absurdity and impertinence of this work40 ,illustration3 8,,ecce ,,ancilla ,,domini60 ,from the ,national ,gallery4 ,from such extravagance of hostility the efforts of ,holman ,hunt were spared for the present2 and his contribution to the ,academy of #ahej1 8,christian ,priests ,escaping from ,druid ,persecution0 7better known as 8,the ,christian ,missionary107 though sharing in the general condemnation of the ,pre-,raphaelite 8heresy and schism10 was not singled out for special objurgation4 ,rossetti's great achievement of the year was the most beautiful1 and at the same time the most dramatic1 of his strictly ,pre-,raphaelite work1 the 8,ecce ,ancilla ,domini0 78,the ,annunciation107 now in the ,national ,gallery4 ,the first rough sketch for this picture--a small water-colour not more than six inches by four--was painted as early as #ahdg in the ,cleveland ,street studio shared with ,hunt4 ,the completed work was rejected by the ,academy1 and seen only in the obscure little ,portland ,gallery in ,regent ,street4 ,but the following season brought a larger measure of opprobrium to ,holman ,hunt4 ,in the autumn of #ahej he had spent some weeks with ,rossetti at ,sevenoaks1 ,kent1 and there painted the greater portion of his picture for the next year's ,academy1 8,valentine rescuing ,sylvia from ,proteus20 a scene from ,shakespeare's 8,two ,gentlemen of ,verona40 ,the beech-tree forest background was painted in ,lord ,amherst's park at ,knowle1 and ,mr4 ,james ,lennox ,hannay 7who died in #ahgc7 was the model for ,valentine4 ,the whole work was characterized by the same bold colouring and exuberance of highly wrought detail1 the same rugged unconventionality of pose and gesture in the composition of the figures1 that had so incensed the organs of ,academic tradition in the previous year4 ,its appearance in the ,academy of #ahea evoked a fresh outburst of official contumely1 in which the painter of 8,valentine and ,sylvia0 7as it was ultimately called71 was no less severely dealt with than his comrade ,millais1 who exhibited at the same time 8,the ,return of the ,dove to the ,ark10 8,mariana of the ,moated ,grange10 and 8,the ,woodman's ,daughter0--one of the finest combinations of ,pre-,raphaelite landscape with the peculiar intensity of figure-drawing and character-study which was a dominant motive with the ,brotherhood at this period4 ,the assailant critics again sought to cover insinuations of gracelessness and deformity of conception beneath the looser charge of defective technique4 ,it was at this juncture that ,mr4 ,ruskin1 then personally unknown to the ,pre-,raphaelites1 and hearing privately of their aims and endeavours through ,mr4 ,coventry ,patmore1 took upon himself to espouse their cause1 perhaps with more ardour than discrimination1 and wrote1 in the spring of #ahea1 the now famous ,letters to the 8,times0 which constituted the first public and authoritative vindication of the ,pre-,raphaelite movement4 ,that ,mr4 ,ruskin may have taken the early achievement and promise of the young painters a little too seriously1 and attributed to them a more exalted conception of their mission as prophets and reformers than they actually cherished1 and that he did undoubtedly misinterpret certain aspects of their religious paintings1 is now widely acknowledged2 nor need we hesitate to say that his influence upon the movement from first to last has been considerably exaggerated4 ,yet it is unquestionable that the first inspiration of ,pre-,raphaelitism was largely due to his writings1 and that his open championship of ,hunt and ,millais at a crisis of popular feeling rendered immense service to their crusade against the blind ,philistinism of the ,british bourgeoisie4 ,replying at once to the technical indictments1 ,mr4 ,ruskin said3--8,there was not a single error in perspective in three out of the four pictures in question #8,the ,woodman's ,daughter1' #8,mariana of the ,moated ,grange1' #8,the ,return of the ,dove to the ,ark1' and #8,valentine and ,sylvia'4444 ,i doubt if1 with the exception of the pictures of ,david ,roberts1 there were one architectural drawing in perspective on the walls of the ,academy2 ,i never met with but two men in my life who knew enough of perspective to draw a ,gothic arch in a retiring plane1 so that its lateral dimensions and curvatures might be calculated to scale from the drawing4 ,our architects certainly do not1 and it was but the other day that1 talking to one of the most distinguished among them1 ,i found he actually did not know how to draw a circle in perspective4444 ,there is not a single study of drapery in the whole ,academy1 be it in large works or small1 which for perfect truth1 power1 and finish1 could be compared with the black sleeve of ,julia1 or with the velvet on the breast and the chain mail of ,valentine1 of ,mr4 ,hunt's picture2 or with the white draperies on the table of ,mr4 ,millais's #8,mariana4' ,and further3 that as studies both of drapery and of every minor detail1 there has been nothing in art so earnest or so complete as these pictures since the days of ,albrecht ,drer4 ,this ,i assert generally and fearlessly40 8,let us only look around at our exhibitions10--continued the writer1 proceeding to compare the work of the ,pre-,raphaelites with the current standard of academic art--8and behold the cattle-pieces1 and sea-pieces1 and fruit-pieces1 and family- pieces1 the eternal brown cows in ditches1 and white sails in squalls1 and sliced lemons in saucers1 and foolish faces in simpers1 and try and feel what we are1 and what we might have been40 ,mr4 ,ruskin's letters to the 8,times0 were revised and republished a few years later in pamphlet form1 introduced by the following statement in the preface3--8,eight years ago1 in the close of the first volume of #8,modern ,painters1' ,i ventured to give this advice to the young artists of ,england3 ,that they should go to ,nature in all singleness of heart1 and walk with her1 laboriously and trustingly1 having no other thought but how best to penetrate her meaning2 rejecting nothing1 selecting nothing1 and scorning nothing3 advice which1 whether bad or good1 involved infinite labour and humiliation in the following it2 and was therefore1 for the most part1 rejected4 ,it has1 however1 at last been carried out1 to the very letter1 by a group of men who1 for their reward1 have been assailed with the most scurrilous abuse which ,i ever recollect seeing issue from the public press40 ,upon this endorsement of the ,pre-,raphaelite aim there followed an indictment of the ,raphaelesque tradition still surviving in the training-schools of ,british art1 in a passage which1 through much quotation1 has now become a familiar example of the controversial literature of the ,pre-,raphaelite movement4 8,we begin10 said ,mr4 ,ruskin1 8in all probability1 by telling the youth of fifteen or sixteen that ,nature is full of faults1 and that he is to improve her2 but that ,raphael is perfection1 and that the more he copies ,raphael the better2 that after much copying of ,raphael he is to try what he can do himself in a ,raphaelesque but yet original manner2 that is to say1 he is to try to do something very clever1 all out of his own head1 but yet this clever something is to be properly subjected to ,raphaelesque rules1 is to have a principal light1 occupying one-seventh of its space1 and a principal shadow1 occupying one-third of the same2 that no two people's heads in the picture are to be turned the same way1 and that all the personages represented are to possess ideal beauty of the highest order1 which ideal beauty consists partly in a ,greek outline of nose1 partly in proportions expressible in decimal fractions between the lips and the chin2 but partly also in that degree of improvement which the youth of sixteen is to bestow upon ,god's work in general40 ,it is not difficult to trace1 in the light of those utterances1 the point of departure between ,mr4 ,ruskin and the ,pre-,raphaelites in their conception of that universe of ,nature which they had studied with the like faithful care4 ,revolting from the quasi-perfection of ,raphaelesque art1 ,ruskin had thrown himself upon ,nature with the confidence of finding in her the absolute perfection vainly sought in the work of man4 ,he had embraced without question the monistic theory of ,nature as essentially beneficent and beautiful1 and had never faced the principal of dualism which has been and must yet remain the crux of modern philosophy4 ,hence he failed to grasp the more romantic and subtle conception of the physical world as the scene1 and not the drama1 of life1 which was immanent in the beginnings and revealed with the maturity of the ,pre-,raphaelite movement4 ,it has been remarked by an astute critic that three of the greatest writers of the ,victorian age-- ,ruskin1 ,carlyle1 and ,browning--have been ruined as thinkers by their ignorance of the law of ,evolution1 with all that it implies of waste and suffering1 of sacrifice and conflict and loss4 ,ruskin's philosophy of nature was founded upon an old and discredited cosmogony2 and however remote may have been the thought of the ,pre-,raphaelite painters from the purely intellectual conclusions of physical and mental science in the nineteenth century1 however apart they may have lived from theological and ethical controversy1 it can safely be said that no contemporary artist save ,tennyson1 in poetry or painting1 has imbibed more completely that spirit of mystical and irresponsible conflict with ,nature which they drew from the atmosphere of medival romance4 ,they understood that he who returns to ,nature1 returns1 as another writer has bluntly expressed it1 to a great many ugly things4 8,we need10 says ,mr4 ,frederic ,harrison1 8as little think the natural world all beauty as think it all horror4 ,it is made up of loveliness and ghastliness1 of harmony and chaos1 of agony1 joy1 life1 death4 ,the nature-worshippers are blind and deaf to the waste and the shrieks which meet the seeker after truth4 ,what a mass there is in ,nature which is appalling--almost maddening to man1 if we coolly resolve to look at all the facts1 as facts60#c ,it was well that the ,pre-,raphaelite painters should return1 as they did1 to the reverent and unbiassed portrayal of the natural world as it presented itself to their eyes4 ,that they should follow with absolute fidelity the phenomena around them1 8rejecting nothing1 selecting nothing1 and scorning nothing10 was the essential preparation for artistic reform4 ,but that they should advance from such a discipline to something of the selectiveness of fine art1 was a step from the analytic method to a constructive effort based on that analysis and not--as in the ,raphaelesque convention--independent of it4 ,in all the highest ,pre- ,raphaelite work we feel instinctively that ,nature is not the subject1 but only the accessory1 of the painting4 ,undoubtedly the new note struck in #ahdi was1 as ,ruskin says1 a note of resistance and defiance4 ,but the revolutionary impulse had yet to be developed on reconstructive lines2 and this development1 though powerfully stimulated by the independent genius of ,millais in the first four years of the ,brotherhood1 passed ultimately into the hands of ,rossetti and ,holman ,hunt4 ,but ,ruskin's championship of ,hunt and ,millais when the powers of orthodoxy were against them and their friends were few1 and his no less generous patronage of ,rossetti in the succeeding years1 did much to turn the current of critical favour in the direction of the ,pre-,raphaelite ideal4 ,hunt's picture1 8,valentine and ,sylvia10 after its merciless ordeal of ridicule and abuse in ,london1 was rewarded by a #ej prize at the ,academy of ,liverpool1--the first ,english city to give public recognition and support to the rising school4 ,the story of the steadfast encouragement accorded to the ,pre-,raphaelites by the ,liverpool ,academy during the next six years1 in which the annual prize of #ej was granted in every instance to pictures either by ,millais1 ,holman ,hunt1 ,ford ,madox ,brown1 or a painter of kindred aims--,mark ,anthony1--and of the dissensions which arose in and round the ,academic ,council when in #aheg the prize was once more won by ,millais1 affords an interesting side light upon the artistic controversy of the period4 ,a leading literary newspaper attacked the ,liverpool ,academy in the bitterest terms for what it called 8the ,pre-,raphaelite heresy10 and ,mr4 ,ruskin again came forward in the press to the defence of the painters4 ,in the following year another nomination of ,madox ,brown by the ,council for the award in question brought the strife to a crisis2 the ,town ,council withdrew its financial support from the ,academy1 and rival exhibitions were opened1 resulting in failure on both sides4 ,time1 however1 worked a significant revenge4 ,not long after the press attack upon the ,academy ,council1 one of the original members of the ,pre-,raphaelite ,brotherhood1 ,mr4 ,f4,g4 ,stephens1 was appointed art-critic of the very journal that had so violently forsworn 8the ,pre-,raphaelite heresy40 ,twenty years later1 the finest ,english art gallery outside ,london was erected in ,liverpool through the munificence of ,mr4 7afterwards ,sir7 ,a4,b4 ,walker1 recently deceased2 and yielded some of the most important spaces on its walls to pictures of the highest level of the ,english ,pre-,raphaelite school4 ,the history of the last two decades has indeed wrought a sufficient vindication of the general methods of these young painters1 and supremely of their practice as colourists2 and it is in the sphere of the colourist that their influence upon contemporary art has made itself felt more deeply1 perhaps1 than in any other branch of technique4 ,but to the vindication of history has been added in recent years1 by the painter most bitterly attacked at the time for his innovations in colour--,sir ,john ,millais--a defence which has now become almost an aphorism in ,english studios4 8,time and ,varnish are two of the greatest ,old ,masters10 says the artist1 writing in #ahhh under the title 8,some ,thoughts on our ,art of ,to-day02 8and their merits are too often attributed by critics to the painters of the pictures they have toned and mellowed4 ,the great artists all painted in bright colours1 such as it is the fashion now-a-days for men to decry as crude and vulgar1 never suspecting that what they applaud in those works is merely the result of what they condemn in their contemporaries4 ,the only way to judge of the treasures which the old masters of whatever age have left us1 is to look at the work and ask oneself #8,what was that like when it was new8' ,take the #8,bacchus and ,ariadne' in the ,national ,gallery1 with its splendid red robe and its rich brown grass4 ,you may rest assured that the painter of that red robe never painted the grass brown4 ,he saw the colour as it was and painted it as it was--distinctly green2 only it has faded with time to its present beautiful mellow colour4 ,yet many men now-a-days will not have a picture with green in it2 some even going so far1 in giving a commission1 as to stipulate that the canvas shall contain none of it4 ,but ,god ,almighty has given us green1 and you may depend upon it1 it's a fine colour40#d ,the writer then describes the gradual fall of ,sir ,joshua ,reynolds before the short-sighted demand for 8subdued colour0 which had become current among the art connoisseurs of his day1 and which at last induced him1 against his better judgment1 to create immediate 8tone10 at the sacrifice of durability1 by the use of that pernicious medium1 asphaltum2 with the result that all his extant work so accomplished is now in a deplorable state of decomposition and ruin4 ,with such examples before them of the evil of yielding to the demands of ignorance1 and lowering in any way one's standard of practice before a popular cry1 the ,pre-,raphaelite ,brothers1 whose first word in art sounded1 as ,ruskin said1 the note of resistance and defiance1 did not scruple to make merry over the weaknesses of a school of painting founded on ,sir ,joshua ,reynold's 8,discourses40 ,mr4 ,madox ,brown tells us how ,rossetti loved to quote from the diary of ,b4,r4 ,haydon3--8,locked my door and dashed at my picture with a brush dripping with asphaltum40 ,but of ,rossetti's cordial admiration for ,haydon's genius a contrasting anecdote is evidence3--,a friend1 discussing with him the relative merits of ,haydon and ,wilkie1 contended that the head of ,lazarus was the only fine thing ,haydon ever produced4 8,ah60 burst out ,rossetti1 8but that one head is worth all the puny ,wilkie ever produced in his life60 ,rossetti's practice1 it may here be said1 differed from that of his ,pre- ,raphaelite comrades in the matter of varnish4 ,the strong impulse towards the fresco-method1 which was initiated in him1 in his student days1 by ,madox ,brown and the ,westminster ,cartoon competitions1 resulted in his avoidance1 throughout the best years of his work1 of glaze and sheen in painting4 ,from the first1 ,rossetti hated varnish3 hence were developed the fresco-like1 pure1 and lustreless depths of colour which mark his finest technical level4 ,but his entire confidence in the 8,old ,master10 ,time1 to enhance and vindicate his rich green glories in drapery and background is sufficiently attested by his unhesitating and masterly use of green in nearly all his greatest pictures4 ,not even the verdant gorgeousness of 8,ferdinand and ,ariel0 can compare with the deep1 chastened splendour of the green in 8,beata ,beatrix0 and 8,mnemosyne10 or in 8,the ,beloved10 8,veronica ,veronese10 8,la ,ghirlandata10 8,the ,blue ,bower10 or1 more daring still1 in the wonderful series of water-colours which occupy the transition period of ,rossetti's ,pre-,raphaelite work4 ----- ,footnote #c3 8,on ,pantheism and ,cosmic ,emotion40 ,footnote #d3 8,the ,magazine of ,art10 #ahhh4 ,,chapter ,,iv4 ,,period ,,of ,,transition4 ,influence of ,browning and ,tennyson--,comparison of ,rossetti and ,browning-- ,influence of ,dante--,introduction to ,miss ,siddal--,rossetti's ,water- colours--,madox ,brown and ,romantic ,realism--,the ,dispersal of the ,brotherhood--,departure of ,woolner--,ideals of ,portraiture--,rossetti and ,public ,exhibitions--,death of ,deverell--,rossetti's ,friendship with ,ruskin--,apostasy of ,millais--,the ,rank and ,file of the ,movement-- ,relation to ,foreign ,schools4 ,while ,millais and ,holman ,hunt were outwardly dominant in the region of reform1 and1 in the exhibitions of #ahej-ea1 were leading the ,brotherhood ,militant boldly into the enemy's camp1 ,rossetti was entering upon a phase of doubt and perplexity1 of self-distrust and hesitation1 which resolved itself into an important crisis in his artistic development4 ,a variety of circumstances diverted him in #ahej from the special line of religious painting1 exemplified in 8,the ,girlhood of ,mary ,virgin0 and 8,ecce ,ancilla ,domini10 which had been the chief outlet of his early enthusiasms in art1--if indeed so inadequate a phrase be permissible in regard to pictures which must rank with the purest products of his genius in its pristine robustness and simplicity4 ,an incident in the studio-annals of the ,brotherhood now turned him aside from the medivo- religious manner adopted directly and literally from the early ,italian masters4 ,rossetti's convert and disciple1 ,james ,collinson1 striving to imitate afar off the sincere habit of his leader1 set to work upon a congruous subject1 8,the ,renunciation of ,st4 ,elizabeth10 and produced a picture so mystical in conception and so hysterical in sentiment1 albeit not without a certain grace and beauty of its own1 that the sound and practical good sense which tempered the mysticism of ,rossetti revolted at once from the extravagance of such a style4 ,he now perceived the danger of pursuing too exclusively a path bordering on the metaphysical and occult1 and quickly sought to brace and strengthen both his own imagination and that of his comrade1 by departing for a time from the field of what is commonly called 8sacred0 art1 and seeking fresh inspirations in a less rarefied air4 ,other influences1 chiefly of a personal kind1 began to play around ,rossetti at this time4 ,he had moved1 early in the year #ahej1 to a suite of rooms at #ad1 ,chatham ,place1 ,blackfriars2 a block of houses since demolished1 but then hospitable enough in a sober charm of environment2 within view of the river and the historic horizon of its shores1 and of certain grim but not wholly unromantic vistas of the great metropolis4 ,in this home was spent the happiest decade of ,rossetti's life4 ,here began1 soon after his settlement in the new abode1 his friendship with the greatest poet of the ,victorian age1 and with another conspicuous in the second rank of its singers1--,tennyson and ,browning1--both destined to exercise a strong influence on ,rossetti's art1 though 7singularly as it happened7 not on his poetry2 which remained1 through years of intellectual intercourse and the reading together of each other's verse1 absolutely unaffected by either of the widely different poetic styles of the then ,laureate and his great contemporary4 ,it is not easy for a succeeding generation to understand with what enthusiasm1 with what delight and invigoration1 the little company of painter-poets plunged into the writings of ,browning when1 following ,rossetti1 who was first on the track of the new fount of refreshment1 they discovered therein the tonic which they needed4 ,no better antidote to the sensuous mysticism into which some of the ,pre-,raphaelites were threatening to lapse could have been found than the wholesome modernity and salutary brusquerie of the author of 8,pauline0 and 8,bells and ,pomegranates40 ,it was probably because they stood most in need of his gospel that the influence of ,browning was at first more strong upon the readers than that of ,tennyson1 who affected them in the direction of pure romance1 and distilled for them all that was sanest and noblest in the medival world4 ,in the autumn of #ahej ,rossetti began1 during his stay with ,hunt and ,f4,g4 ,stephens at ,sevenoaks1 a number of sketches with a view to a large and elaborate picture of 8,kate the ,queen10 from ,browning's well-known lyric4 ,but he could never satisfy himself with the design1 and after much toil1 disheartenment1 and perplexity1 the subject was abandoned1 like many more promising themes which from time to time inspired ,rossetti4 ,the entire year1 save for the success of 8,ecce ,ancilla ,domini10 had been one of disappointment to him1 and of disconsolate struggles for a new departure4 ,he had made many futile attempts at designs for 8,the ,germ10 but none pleased him1 and now he was casting about for new matter and media4 ,for1 as his standard of excellence rose higher1 he began to feel more acutely his technical shortcomings1--the results partly of his incomplete training and desultory study in youth1 partly of singular ill-luck in his figure-models1 and partly also of a curious constitutional deficiency--not of industry per se1 but of the faculty to direct and apply his industry along right lines4 ,no modern artist has disproved more completely than ,rossetti the barren platitude which defines genius as 8the capacity for taking infinite pains40 ,comparison between ,rossetti and ,browning in their struggle with mental tendencies unfavourable to lucid and well-ordered art is too obvious to demand pursuit in detail4 ,both took the prescribed 8infinite pains10 but neither in the most profitable directions4 ,browning was over-charged with thought2 ,rossetti with imagination2 and both were cumbered with the difficulties of artistic speech4 ,the art of ,browning has frequently been pronounced crude1 raw1 and 8undigested40 ,one would hesitate to apply such terms to any work of ,rossetti's2 for his1 even at its most elemental stages1 generally erred in the direction of strained and laboured purism1 being over-wrought rather than unripe in conception or performance4 ,in both artists1 an exuberant activity of output was combined with a curious inability to undergo the full discipline of just and coherent expression4 ,browning's prolific and incorrigible chaos of diction and metre1 and ,rossetti's want of balance and sobriety in draughtsmanship1 are but instances of the too frequent impediments of genius in the process of transmission4 ,rossetti1 when he attained perfection in technique--and that he did so absolutely and repeatedly can no longer be questioned--seemed to stumble on it1 as we have already suggested1 by a sort of exquisite chance1 a divine surprise1 rather than a logical issue4 ,and1 manfully as he strove to recover in technical science1 and did indeed recover to a marvellous degree1 the lost ground of early days in a splendid maturity1 his sense of perfect drawing was too fine for him not to suffer keenly--so long as that sense remained unimpaired--from that inability to realize at will his own ideals of perfection1 which to every true worker is the only thing to be called failure4 ,distracted as ,rossetti was throughout his life by the very richness and fertility of his own genius1 torn ever between divided aims and conflicting purposes1 the more mutually obstructive because of the restless and hyper-sensitive nature which was the field and victim of their strife1 the difficulty of concentrating that genius upon the highest aim and purpose within its proper sphere was never more stubborn than at this period4 ,so largely did the poetic impulse1 in his youth1 predominate over the pictorial method1 that1 as he himself declares in a letter written in retrospect1 it was not until #ahec1 when he was twenty- five years of age1 that he definitely adopted painting as his life-study and profession1 and relegated his literary efforts to a subordinate place4 ,subordinate they were in name and for a time only3 to be put forth with fresh ardour and greater mastery at intervals of his painting1 and to surpass it in some respects in the essentials of fine art4 ,rossetti had yet to learn that he1 even more than ,hunt and ,millais1 was primarily and supremely a colourist in the broadest sense of the word4 ,but a still deeper and more abiding influence from the literature of the past was by this time ascendant in ,rossetti's mind4 ,the love of ,dante1 already inherent in him1 was nurtured by many tender associations of youth3 it now increased and swayed him as a direct and urgent spiritual power4 ,in #ahde the vague spell of the old name upon the young namesake had changed1 for the latter1 into an eager study of his great poetic inheritance4 ,the magic and majestic visions of the 8,purgatorio0 and 8,paradiso10 and still more1 the unforgettable life-tragedy of their seer1 had sunk deeply into ,rossetti's thought1 until1 from his own recreative alembic of fantasy1 he began1 about #ahej1 to bring them forth again on paper and canvas1 in a rich and profuse miscellany of rough sketches and brilliant vignettes and colour-studies1 too often left unfinished at a point of high promise and alluring suggestions of success4 ,it is not difficult to trace1 through the strange parallels of circumstance and destiny1 the sombre charm that bound the exiled poet of the fourteenth to him of the nineteenth century4 ,it has been said that no ascendancy of a great poetic personality over one born in a later age has been more potent and fruitful in art than that of ,dante ,alighieri over ,dante ,gabriel ,rossetti4 ,in #ahdi-ej we find the latter sketching1 first in ink and then in colours1 the historic or legendary meeting of ,dante and ,beatrice ,portinari at a marriage feast1 when ,beatrice is said to have laughed with her companions at the shyness and confusion of the young patriot-guest4 ,the second of these sketches was severely criticised when exhibited in #ahea-eb1 on account of a daring juxtaposition of bright light green and bright light blue in the colour scheme4 ,this bold experiment was afterwards defended by ,ruskin by analogy with the natural disposition of green grass1 etc41 against a summer sky4 ,it was at this time also that another new and important personal influence came upon ,rossetti's life4 ,james ,collinson had now separated from the ,brotherhood1 and was succeeded1 at all events probationally1 by ,walter ,howell ,deverell1 through whom1 by one of those strange chances which sometimes modify in a moment the destinies of a lifetime1 ,rossetti made the acquaintance of ,miss ,elizabeth ,eleanor ,siddal2 a young girl of such remarkable beauty that ,deverell at once asked her to sit to him as a model1 and introduced her to ,rossetti for the same purpose4 ,the story runs to the effect that ,deverell1 who was himself of singularly handsome and winning presence1 accidentally caught sight of ,miss ,siddal's face1 with its regular1 delicate features and profusion of rich1 dark auburn hair1 in the background of a shop-window where she--the daughter of a ,sheffield cutler--was engaged as a milliner's assistant4 ,to ,deverell1 being at that time in search of a model for his new picture1 8,viola10 from ,shakespeare's 8,twelfth ,night10 the sight of such a face was doubly welcome4 ,he quickly made such frank and honourable advances as his graces of person and character facilitated1 and ,miss ,siddal's dbut in the studios of the ,brotherhood brought not only to ,deverell a perfect ,viola1 but to ,rossetti an ideal and actual ,beatrice4 ,for the young artists soon found their model to be--in the old fairy-tale phrase--8as good as she was beautiful40 ,of that goodness and beauty1 that incomparable charm of talent and of character1 of manner and temperament1 which soon made her the centre of the warmest admiration and affection1 enough has long since been written1 by those who knew her1 to render the tardy praise of less qualified historians alike needless and impertinent4 ,the members of the ,brotherhood vied with each other in the endeavour to immortalize her in their paintings4 ,rossetti1 ,hunt1 and ,millais did so with unqualified success4 ,rossetti1 in his turn1 discovered that she herself possessed extraordinary aptitude for art4 ,he gave her lessons in drawing and painting1 and the two worked together upon kindred ideals4 ,her presence in the studios was soon upon the footing of equal friendship and pleasant cameraderie4 ,the vigour of her imagination is best seen in a water-colour drawing1 8,sir ,patrick ,spens10 in ,mr4 ,theodore ,watts's collection4 ,it represents the wives of the men on the doomed ship waiting in agonized expectancy upon the shore4 ,soon a different and deeper attachment sprang up between teacher and pupil4 ,her exquisite spirit1 her gracious ways1 appealed as deeply to ,rossetti's sensitive and passionate nature as did her beauty to his sthetic judgment4 ,his love for her was as the gathering up of all the scattered forces of his being into one consecrated worship4 ,it may well be that the progress of courtship was not invariably favourable to the progress of art1 but several rough portraits by ,rossetti of himself and ,miss ,siddal1 and of ,rossetti by his fair companion1 remain as pleasant witnesses of idle hours1 and are at the same time drawn with singular vividness and force4 ,early in #ahea1 or perhaps at the close of the previous year1 ,miss ,siddal appears to have given sittings to ,holman ,hunt for the face of ,sylvia in his picture of 8,valentine and ,sylvia10 already referred to4 ,rossetti sat with her as the ,jester in ,walter ,deverell's 8,viola0--his most successful picture2 taken from the scene in which the ,duke asks the ,jester to 8sing again that antique song he sang last night40 ,the artist served as his own model for the ,duke4 ,it appears probable that ,rossetti and ,miss ,siddal were engaged as early as #ahec1 though the relationship was not openly avowed for a considerable period1 and did not terminate in marriage until #ahfj4 ,rossetti's pecuniary position1 at the outset of his career1 was naturally uncertain2 nor did it materially improve with subsequent prosperity and fame2 for his tastes and habits1 according to the traditions of artistic ,bohemia1 were as luxurious and improvident as his earnings were precarious4 ,miss ,siddal1 too1 was delicate in health4 ,an early sketch of her1 from ,rossetti's hand1 and now in the ,south ,kensington ,museum1 representing her as she stands by a window1 in a gown of quaint simplicity and soberness1 gives perhaps the truest impression of her personality that could be selected from the portraits of that period4 ,the artless and yet somewhat austere pose1 the fragile grace and slightly languid sweetness of aspect1 afford a key to the criticism once passed to the effect that 8she would have been a ,puritan if she had not been an invalid40 ,the latter she never was in the sense of chronic inactivity1 but of such delicacy as to give a peculiar tenderness to her service as a model1 and unhappily both to delay and abbreviate the short period of married life4 ,to some critics it has been a source of regret that ,rossetti should have come in youth so unreservedly under the spell of a type of beauty as exclusive as that of this well-beloved model4 ,the rare blending of spiritual with sensuous charm which she presented in feature and expression so fully satisfied his own ideal of that harmony as to make him dwell upon1 and perhaps specialize it1 in a way which constituted a danger to his art2 inducing him to read into other feminine types the individual characteristics of the one4 ,fortunate as he was in after life in obtaining for his models some of the most beautiful and cultured women in the artistic and literary circles of ,london1 his tendency was almost always to look at them1 as it were1 in the light of that established ideal1 and to conceive them as versions merely of that elemental loveliness which so dominated his thought4 ,but it was inevitable that a temperament like ,rossetti's should specialize1 through their very intensity1 the dominant characteristics most familiar to his pencil and his brush4 ,the case of ,miss ,herbert1 an accomplished actress who gave him a number of sittings in the next decade1 is perhaps the most striking exception to the rule2 but her style of beauty was in too complete a contrast to that of ,miss ,siddal 7being of a severe1 robust1 and ,hellenic type7 to allow of any compromise between the features of the two4 ,the combined influence of ,browning and ,tennyson among contemporary poets1 and the increasing sway of ,dante over the young painter1 inclining him the more strongly in the direction of historic romance1 produced1 as we have seen1 a somewhat desultory course of pen-and-ink sketches and water-colour studies during the next few years4 ,the interval from #ahej to #aheh may be reckoned as ,rossetti's second period4 ,after the completion of 8,ecce ,ancilla ,domini10 he painted no important oil picture until the ,llandaff 8,triptych0 of #ahei1 and the contemporary 8,bocca ,baciata10 which stands first in point of time1 and high in point of merit1 among the masterpieces of his maturity4 ,yet the water-colours of the second period1 capricious and experimental in treatment as many of them are1 include some of the most valuable1 because the most characteristic and significant1 of ,rossetti's work in the realm of pure romance4 ,in these rough and often hasty sketches1 sometimes less than twelve by twenty inches in size1 his imagination seems to have been exercising itself upon the poetic subjects that haunted him by turns with the vividness of actual life1 more vital and urgent than the realities of every day4 ,several1 indeed1 of the finest of these water-colours are now dated1 on good authority1 as early as #ahdh-di2 such as the lovely little sepia sketch1 8,the ,sun may ,shine and we be cold10 given to his friend1 ,alexander ,monro1 a young ,scottish sculptor of high promise1 whose early death from consumption removed an artist who could ill be spared from the small and never very strong sculpture-branch of the ,pre-,raphaelite movement4 ,to this period also belong some of the most important of the ,dante subjects4 ,from #ahdi is dated 8,a ,parable of ,love10 one of the best of ,rossetti's early drawings in pen and ink4 ,the lady is seated at an easel on which she has been painting her own portrait from a mirror at her side4 ,her lover1 bending over her from behind1 lays his hand upon hers to guide the brush anew4 ,mr4 ,woolner served as the model for the lover4 ,a pen-drawing from ,browning's 8,sordello10 entitled 8,taurello's ,first ,sight of ,fortune10 also belongs to #ahdi1 together with the powerful little sketch1 8,the ,laboratory10 from the same poet1 showing a strange1 brilliant1 witch- like or almost serpent-like woman in an alchemist's shop1 procuring from him some fateful elixir wherewith to play upon her rival and avenge herself upon the lover1 once her own4 ,one of the most beautiful water-colours of #ahej is the 8,morning ,music20 a dainty little half-length figure of a white-clad girl seated at her toilet1 another maiden brushing her long bright hair1 while her lover stands1 making music from some archaic instrument1 at her side4 ,at this time also ,rossetti made the first sketch of a subject which fascinated him with peculiar force almost throughout his artistic career1 and to which he returned again and again in several media1 even within a short time of his death1 but without ever achieving a finished picture-- 8,michael ,scott's ,wooing40 ,in #ahea were made the best of several water-colour drawings from the subject of 8,lucretia ,borgia10 and the first pen and pencil sketches of a subject suggested by the famous ,dppelgnger legends of northern ,europe4 ,the design for 8,how they met themselves0 remains among the very highest of ,rossetti's conceptions in pure romance4 ,the final pen-and-ink version was not done till #ahfj1 nor the water-colour till #ahfd4 ,the subject demands further study in a separate chapter1 together with the principal ,dante sketches in this group4 ,several drawings from ,shakespearean subjects1 including 8,benedick and ,beatrice0 78,much ,ado about ,nothing07 and 8,orlando and ,adam in the ,forest0 78,as ,you ,like ,it071 were also executed about this time4 ,mr4 ,f4,g4 ,stephens traces some interesting modifications of ,rossetti's technique between the years #ahej and #ahec to the influence of his comrades in the course of associated work4 ,from ,millais he seems to have gained something of the easy grace and suavity of style which was lacking in his first too strenuous work2 from ,holman ,hunt1 the scrupulous and laboured detail which readily became as exhaustively 7and sometimes exhaustingly7 symbolic as ,hunt's own2 and from ,ford ,madox ,brown a certain robust breadth and dramatic mastery which was needed to lift his subjective creations into a large and quickening atmosphere4 ,probably it was the influence of ,madox ,brown that led him to the field of stern and practical social problems1 of everyday romance2 to deal with the eternally crucial relationship of frail womanhood to passionate manhood1 and all its sweet and bitter and profound significance upon the life of humanity1 as he dealt with it in the wonderful 8,hesterna ,rosa0 78,yesterday's ,rose07 of #ahea1 in 8,the ,gate of ,memory0 six years later1 and in the great realistic picture1 8,found10 which was begun in #aheb1 but which1 after many vicissitudes of neglect1 spasmodic effort1 and frequent despair1 remained still unfinished at the painter's death4 ,it may be wished that ,rossetti had pursued more thoroughly the motif which thus yielded some of the most remarkable and suggestive of his designs4 ,this group1 however1 again affords a subject for consideration on a future page4 ,but the year #ahec saw also the first outward signs of the breaking-up of the ,pre-,raphaelite ,brotherhood4 ,thomas ,woolner1 the oldest member of the ,brotherhood1 at this time twenty-eight years of age1 being still unable to earn a living in ,london by his art1 now determined to emigrate to ,australia1 where some friends of his family were already established at ,melbourne1 and to try his luck at the gold-diggings1 which were at that time a source of much excitement and speculation in ,english circles4 ,woolner had already achieved some unpretentious but exceedingly thoughtful and conscientious work in sculpture1 but he had not met with much academic recognition1 nor with any substantial favour from the art- patronising public4 ,for many years a pupil of ,behnes1 he entered the ,academy ,schools in #ahdb1 and contributed a large composition of life- size figures representing 8,the ,death of ,boadicea0 to the ,westminster ,cartoon ,competition of #ahdd4 ,his contributions to the ,royal ,academy exhibitions in ,trafalgar ,square had included 8,eleanor ,sucking the ,poison from the ,wound of ,prince ,edward0 7#ahdc71 8,alastor0 7from ,shelley1 #ahdf71 8,feeding the ,hungry0 7bas-relief1 #ahdg71 8,eros and ,euphrosyne0 and 8,the ,rainbow0 7#ahdh71 and portraits of ,carlyle and ,tennyson4 ,at the ,british ,institution he had also exhibited a statuette of 8,puck0 7#ahdg7 and 8,titania ,caressing the ,indian ,boy0 7#ahdh74 ,he sailed for ,australia in the spring of #ahec1 accompanied by a promising young sculptor named ,bernhard ,smith 7who died somewhat prematurely in #ahhe71 and followed shortly afterwards by ,e4,l4 ,bateman1 another close sympathizer with ,pre- ,raphaelite aims4 ,woolner returned to ,england early in #aheg1 and then executed the fine bust of ,tennyson recently placed in ,poets' ,corner1 ,westminster ,abbey4 ,his later work1 however1 can hardly be classed with that of the ,pre-,raphaelite band4 ,he died on the #gth of ,october1 #ahib4 ,in the summer of the same year the ,brethren agreed to paint together a group of their own portraits1 in order to send them over as a gift to their distant comrade on the gold-fields of the ,antipodes4 ,accordingly1 they met one day at ,millais's studio in ,gower ,street4 ,there were present ,dante and ,w4,m4 ,rossetti1 ,f4,g4 ,stephens1 ,millais1 and ,holman ,hunt4 ,mr4 ,w4,m4 ,rossetti1 ranks the results in the following order of merit3--,the portrait of ,stephens by ,millais1 of ,millais by ,hunt1 of ,w4,m4 ,rossetti by ,millais1 of ,dante ,rossetti by ,hunt1 and of ,hunt by ,dante ,rossetti4 ,rossetti himself1 as we have already seen1 produced but very few male portraits4 ,the large oil-painting of his godfather1 ,mr4 ,charles ,lyell1 and the pencil drawings of his father and grandfather2 the water-colour sketches of ,browning and ,swinburne1 and the admirable life-size chalks of ,mr4 ,ruskin1 ,mr4 ,theodore ,watts 7said by ,mr4 ,swinburne to be his masterpiece in portraiture71 ,mr4 ,f4,r4 ,leyland1 ,dr4 ,gordon ,hake1 ,mr4 ,george ,hake1 and ,mr4 ,w4,j4 ,stillman1 two or three pencil drawings of ,madox ,brown1 and the painting of ,holman ,hunt1 as above recorded1 seem to exhaust the list of his efforts in that field1 if we exclude the consideration of many excellent likenesses which occur among his genre-pictures4 ,w4,m4 ,rossetti1 for instance1 sat more than once to his brother for the head of ,dante1 and many other important figures2 in fact1 there was a general practice of mutual accommodation among the ,brothers in serving as models one to another4 ,yet the immense influence of the ,pre-,raphaelite movement upon ,english portraiture in the latter half of the nineteenth century would be difficult to over-estimate4 ,it must be remembered that the first principle of ,pre-,raphaelitism--namely1 that nature1 including human nature1 is to be painted truthfully and unflinchingly as it presents itself to the painter's eye--strikes directly at the root of the conventional habit1 which aimed at 8idealizing0 the subject into something far superior to the present reality4 ,still1 as 8the eye sees what it brings the power to see10 so the rightly-trained artist sees infinitely more than the casual observer1 and his purest realism becomes the highest ideality4 ,for in order to represent nature truly1 something more is demanded than imitation4 ,diderot tells a story of a painter well known to him and to fame1 who1 on beginning work upon a new subject1 always went down upon his knees and prayed to be delivered from the model4 ,there was a grain of truth in his notion4 ,to be delivered from the letter in order to apprehend the spirit1 yet to follow faithfully the visible in order to attain the invisible1 is the task of the portrait-painter4 ,the mistake of the pseudo-classic idealists1 as of the impractical folk in other walks of life1 is to suppose that by aiming at the spirit they are absolved from the letter altogether2 not perceiving that to gain the spirit they must reach through the letter1 and beyond it4 ,every true portrait-painter is an idealist in this highest sense1 that he perceives and reproduces the inmost and essential ,self of his sitter1 and in supreme moments resolves1 as ,spinoza would have it1 the 8potential human0 into the 8actual divine40 ,he portrays scrupulously the outward aspect1 but interprets the whole by that pervading spirit from within to which the outward aspect has given him--as a seer--the key4 ,the face he paints is not transfigured by his own imagination1 his own conceit1 however fair1 of what that face might or ought to be2 but it is revealed in its own distinct and actual being by a witness which1 if truthful1 must be as generous as stern4 ,it is the immortal and inevitable 8,thou ,thyself0 of which ,rossetti sings3 8,i am ,thyself--what hast thou done to me8 --,and ,thou ,thyself to all eternity60 ,yet if we may risk a paradox1 it is precisely in the reality that there lies the potentiality of the life within2 behind the physical is abides the spiritual may be2 the 8everlasting no0 of the uncompromising realist1 sifting1 limiting1 and analyzing down the human unit into bare and rigid matter1 often conceals the hidden hope and promise of the idealist's 8everlasting yea40 ,hence a great portrait is charged to the full with latent possibilities of character and destiny4 ,it suggests forces as well as phenomena1 causes as well as effects1 inherent tendencies as well as facts4 ,someone has said that a human face should be either a promise or a history4 ,the definition is too narrow4 ,every face1 save perhaps in childhood1 and not always with that exception1 contains both promise and history inextricably blended each with each4 ,a great portrait must be passionately personal1 intensely individual2 presenting one single1 complete1 and separate identity to the eye and mind1 and yet in a very real sense impersonal1 having a certain universal1 humanitarian significance4 ,for the artist's hand sets the human unit in its place in the great ,family2 lifts it on to the broad planes of the world's common life4 ,as his eye sees all things1 like ,spinoza1 sub specie eternitatis--sees ,time in the light of ,eternity--so it sees one ,man in the light of ,humanity4 ,he knows no isolations of being1 conceives no man as 8living to himself20 but is concerned ever with relationships and imperative sympathies between the subject of his portrait and the rest of mankind2 so that the personality that looks forth from his canvas1 faithfully and profoundly interpreted by his own1 has in it the elements of appeal and challenge1 and sends out a radiance of vitality to its spiritual kin4 ,in this ideal of portraiture the young ,pre-,raphaelites had been confirmed by ,ruskin long ago2 and he had pointed them to the incomparable portraits of ,dante by ,giotto1 of ,petrarch by ,simon ,memmi1 and of ,savonarola by ,fra ,bartolomeo1 as examples among the ,italian ,pre- ,raphaelites of the attainment of such success4 ,rossetti and his comrades in their turn1 more especially some of the younger and more independent spirits not actually or permanently connected with the ,brotherhood1 developed and perfected the ideal to a degree incalculably fruitful in contemporary art4 ,it will hardly be disputed that in ,mr4 ,g4,f4 ,watts1 one of the truest ,pre-,raphaelites in aspiration and temper1 though utterly distinct from them in original genius and intellectual range1 ,england has found at last her greatest portrait painter1 while to ,millais1 one of the original members of the ,brotherhood1 the judgment of posterity will attribute a scarcely less exalted place4 ,they found the art of portraiture degraded1 almost without exception1 to the lowest level of trivial prettiness as regards women1 and vulgar affectation in dealing with men4 8,the system to be overthrown10 as ,ruskin said1 8was one of which the main characteristic was the pursuit of beauty at the expense of truth40 ,and such pursuit leads in all ages to the same inexorable fatality1--the beauty so gained is always of a false and spurious kind4 ,the ancient allegory of ,pandemos and ,urania is for ever true in art4 ,the seeker for ideal beauty seeks it only in visible forms1 pursues it through the physical world alone1 awaits it at the doors of sense merely1 and is straightway ensnared by the earthly ,pandemos1 the ,venus of the flesh4 ,but let him steadfastly set his soul to the higher worship1 let him seek reverently the moral and spiritual loveliness of human character in the great is and the greater may be of the throbbing1 actual life around him1 and surely he will be brought into the near presence of the heavenly ,urania2 surely he will pass1 with ,rossetti1 through 8,body's ,beauty0 to 8,soul's ,beauty10 and worship with him --8that ,lady ,beauty in whose praise ,thy voice and hand shake still1--long known to thee ,by flying hair and fluttering hem1--the beat ,following her daily of thy heart and feet1 ,how passionately and irretrievably1 ,in what fond flight1 how many ways and days60 ,the attention of ,mr4 ,ruskin had meanwhile been diverted to some extent from the work of ,millais and ,hunt by his entrance in #ahed upon a close personal friendship with ,rossetti1 which lasted in cordial fidelity for some ten or twelve years4 ,at the time of his first public championship of the ,pre-,raphaelite ,brotherhood1 ,mr4 ,ruskin had known nothing of ,rossetti's work1 inasmuch as it had never yet appeared on the walls of the ,academy or in any of the popular exhibitions of the period4 ,but1 for such unintentional and unconscious neglect of the real leader of the movement which he so warmly endorsed1 the great critic now made ample reparation4 ,he became a constant and generous patron of ,rossetti's pictures until the painter passed1 about the year #ahfe1 into his third artistic period1 and developed methods less in accordance with ,ruskin's especial tenets4 ,that the gradual severance of intimacy between artist and buyer should have been brought about by the former's independence of spirit and resolute adherence to his own inspirations and aims1 in the face of some1 perhaps1 over-officious criticism and counsel from his patron1 is certainly no discredit to ,rossetti4 ,at the same time1 the art-world owes a debt of gratitude to ,mr4 ,ruskin for having so long encouraged1 by his support and sympathy1 the production of those exquisite water-colours which ,rossetti1 unsettled as he then was in habits of painting1 might not otherwise have accomplished in such splendour and cogency during his transition period4 ,and to these years of intimacy with ,ruskin belong nearly all the finest drawings of his 8,morte ,d',arthur0 series1 such as 8,king ,arthur's ,tomb0 7called sometimes 8,the ,last ,meeting of ,launcelot and ,guinevere10 though the design by no means gives the impression of a meeting in the flesh71 8,the ,damozel of the ,sanct ,grael10 8,the ,chapel before the ,lists10 8,the ,meeting of ,sir ,tristram and ,iseult10 8,sir ,galahad in the ,ruined ,chapel10 8,sir ,galahad and ,sir ,bors10 8,launcelot ,escaping from ,guinevere's ,chamber10 and 8,the ,death of ,breuse sans ,piti20 together with a fresh and important group of ,biblical subjects treated in a more daringly romantic manner than before1 including 8,the ,passover in the ,holy ,family10 8,bethlehem ,gate10 8,ruth and ,boaz10 8,the ,crucifixion10 8,mary in the ,house of ,john10 and the first sketch for 8,mary ,magdalene at the ,door of ,simon the ,pharisee20 also the 8,triptych0 for the altar-piece of ,llandaff ,cathedral1 8,the ,infant ,christ ,adored by a ,shepherd and a ,king40 ,the ,dante subjects again appear in #ahed-ee1 with 8,francesca di ,rimini10 8,paolo and ,francesca10 8,matilda ,gathering ,flowers0 7from the 8,purgatorio071 8,dante's ,vision of ,rachel and ,leah10 8,dante at ,verona10 and the first version of the picture afterwards among ,rossetti's masterpieces1 8,dante's ,dream40 ,the little drawings of 8,the ,tune of the ,seven ,towers0 in #ahej1 8,carlisle ,tower10 8,fra ,angelico ,painting10 and 8,giorgione ,painting0 in #ahec1 8,the ,queen's ,page0 7from ,heine7 in #ahed1 8,fra ,pace0 and 8,monna ,rosa0 in #ahef1 8,the ,blue ,closet10 8,the ,blue ,bower10 8,the ,bower ,garden10 and the first design for a favourite subject variously known as 8,aurelia0 and 8,bonifazio's0 or 8,fazio's ,mistress0 in #aheg2 these1 together with some further sketches for 8,la ,belle ,dame sans ,merci10 a number of portraits of ,miss ,siddal1 ,browning1 ,tennyson1 and ,swinburne1 whom he knew in #aheg1 are but a selection from the almost countless studies1 in pencil1 pen and ink1 neutral tint1 water-colour1 and occasional oil1 scattered over ,rossetti's transition period4 8,,mary ,,magdalene ,,at ,,the ,,door ,,of ,,simon ,,the ,,pharisee40 ,from a drawing4 ,by permission of ,lord ,battersea and ,overstrand4 ,illustration3 ,mary ,magdalene 8,st4 ,luke the ,painter10 in #aheg1 is notable as being ,rossetti's first success in coloured chalk2 a medium which he affected more freely in after years1 and with extraordinary power and felicity2 the medium1 in fact1 in which some of the noblest of his later half-length symbolic figures were executed4 ,after the year #ahej ,rossetti almost ceased to exhibit in picture galleries4 ,a very few of his pictures1 including the 8,bocca ,baciata0 and a version of 8,lucretia ,borgia10 were thenceforth seen in the ,hogarth ,club1 a small society of artists and amateurs to which he belonged1 and others afterwards in the ,arundel ,club1 which he joined in #ahfe4 ,an important exception1 however1 was made to this rule of seclusion in #ahef1 when a small but highly representative ,pre-,raphaelite ,exhibition was opened at #d1 ,russell ,place1 ,fitzroy ,square4 ,among ,rossetti's contributions were the first water-colour draft of 8,dante's ,dream10 already alluded to1 and its pendant1 8,the ,anniversary of the ,death of ,beatrice10 8,hesterna ,rosa10 8,the ,blue ,closet10 and 8,mary ,magdalene40 ,the other exhibitors were ,millais1 ,holman ,hunt1 ,madox ,brown1 ,arthur ,hughes1 ,charles ,collins1 ,william ,davis1 ,w4,l4 ,windus1 ,inchbold1 ,seddon and ,brett4 ,the 8,dante's ,dream0 re-appeared at the ,liverpool ,academy in #aheh1 together with 8,a ,christmas ,carol10 and 8,the ,wedding of ,st4 ,george02 8,fair ,rosamund10 and 8,the ,farmer's ,daughter0 7study for 8,found07 went to the ,royal ,scottish ,academy in #ahfb2 and 8,mary in the ,house of ,john0 appeared at the ,fine ,art ,society's ,galleries in #ahgi4 ,a version of 8,pandora10 in #ahgg or #ahgh1 and a lovely little water-colour1 8,spring10 in #ahgi1 were lent by their purchasers to the ,glasgow ,institute of ,fine ,arts2 8,tibullus's ,return to ,delia0 was similarly lent to the ,albert ,gallery ,exhibition at ,edinburgh in #ahgg2 and in #ahha the ,loan ,exhibition at the ,royal ,manchester ,institution included four important water- colours--8,proserpine10 a 8,lucretia ,borgia10 8,hesterna ,rosa10 and 8,washing ,hands20 and five oils--8,proserpine10 8,two ,mothers10 8,joli ,cur10 8,a ,vision of ,fiametta10 and 8,water-,willow40 ,these instances complete the brief list of ,rossetti's pictures exhibited in public galleries during the lifetime of the artist4 ,in the year #ahed1 the ,pre-,raphaelite ,brotherhood1 already practically broken up by divergence of method in the leading painters1 and changes of aim and sphere among the lesser lights of the revolutionary dawn1 may be said to have been finally dispersed by the lamented death of ,walter ,deverell1 and the departure of ,holman ,hunt for a lengthy sojourn in the ,east1 there to paint directly from nature--according to the much boasted but oft-broken rule--the backgrounds and appurtenances of those ,biblical subjects to which he was now strongly drawn4 ,the death of ,deverell at an early age was a heavy personal bereavement to ,rossetti1 and an occasion of genuine grief to all the ,brotherhood1 with whom he was exceedingly popular4 ,nor was the loss to art easily reparable1 or the work of his surviving comrades unaffected by the removal of a painter of such singular purity and grace4 ,he was a son of the ,secretary of the ,schools of ,design1 which were the precursor of the ,south ,kensington ,science and ,art ,department4 ,rossetti and ,millais were thus1 in #ahed1 left alone as practical painters2 ,w4,m4 ,rossetti having been from the first exclusively a littrateur1 while ,f4,g4 ,stephens1 after having produced in youth some work of high quality on strictly ,pre-,raphaelite lines1 had by this time adopted the same sphere of energy1 especially in the realm of the art- critic4 ,but the phase of doubt and hesitation1 of compromise 7in no invidious sense7 between the first inflexible attitude of revolt and the further impulse of re-construction1 which had overtaken the ,brotherhood in #ahea1 was by no means the special ordeal of ,rossetti4 ,it came soon afterwards upon ,millais with an equal import and significance2 as though each must pass1 in individual experience1 through the several stages of destructive and re-creative energy1 first of protest1 then of reform1 and afterwards of reconciliation and progress1 which they had recognized in the history of the past1 and which their own work as a whole afforded to the history of the nineteenth century4 ,they had to exemplify1 each for himself1 the resolute overthrow of partial and degenerate principles1 and the pursuit1 more or less successful1 of a further and perhaps undefined ideal1 or the reaction towards that very order against which their own strenuous protest had been set4 ,and it is remarkable that1 in the case both of ,rossetti and of ,millais1 the painter should have reached his highest level of excellence in art precisely at the moment when his methods were the most unsettled and his principles the least assured4 ,the most discerning critics now agree in placing the high-water mark of ,rossetti's genius in the midst of this transition period1 ranging from #ahej to #ahfj1 or1 if the decade may be stretched by a license of etymology1 covering the 8,beata ,beatrix0 of #ahfc4 ,and it is scarcely disputable that the supreme achievements of ,millais lie within a narrower space1 comprising chiefly the 8,hugenot0 and 8,ophelia0 of #aheb1 8,the ,order of ,release0 of #ahec1 8,autumn ,leaves0 and 8,the ,blind ,girl0 of #ahef1 and 8,the ,eve of ,st4 ,agnes0 in #ahfc1 which really belongs in conception and spirit to the ,keats epoch1 if we may so call it1 which gave birth to the ,pre-,raphaelite ,brotherhood4 ,just as in the dawn of the ,italian ,renaissance the point of absolute greatness in art was gained at the momentary coalition of the old forces with the new1 when the classic spirit was conquered and absorbed by the spirit of romance1 and the romantic spirit still beat tremulously about the new world's doors1 so in the struggle of the modern ,pre-,raphaelites to reconcile the new impulse with the heritage of the past1 the triumph came in the midst of the conflict rather than after the victory4 ,just as ,leonardo and ,michaelangelo gathered up and combined the discordant elements of the strife around them into a noble harmony of art1 so did the ,pre- ,raphaelites attune and interpret the diverse forces of their own revolution when they felt its import most acutely1 and least knew whither it would lead them4 ,and to almost opposite poles of thought and sentiment were ,millais and ,rossetti led4 ,the extraordinary change which gradually came over the work of ,millais after his election to the ,associateship of the ,royal ,academy in #ahed--the youngest painter1 with the exception of ,lawrence1 ever admitted to that rank--has been the subject of much criticism and controversy4 ,it has been contended by several writers that ,millais lacked original imagination1 and could not sustain his early level without the constant inspiration and stimulus of ,rossetti and ,hunt1 both of whom were by this time absorbed in fresh developments of their own4 ,more ardent apologists have claimed that his ,pre-,raphaelite period was but a curious episode in ,millais's career2 a mere incident in the growth of a genius too brilliant to submit for long to bias from without2 and that his impressionable nature was only temporarily swayed by the proselytizing enthusiasm of his comrades4 ,it is hard to attribute the qualities of his finest work--qualities of a high imaginative order1 as in 8,the ,eve of ,st4 ,agnes10 or 8,the ,enemy ,sowing ,tares10 to any genius but his own1 or to believe that the painter of 8,ophelia0 and the 8,blind ,girl0 was not himself profoundly moved by the pathos and tragedy which he therein conceived4 ,nor can it be urged that the exigencies of ill-fortune1 the stress of poverty1 or any of those dire necessities of fate which have driven many a true artist on the downward road1 drove ,millais to paint as unblushingly for the ,philistine market as he had formerly done for an obscure and despised coterie of artistic revolutionists4 ,free as he always was of pecuniary care1 and favoured by destiny with all the pleasures of domestic and social prosperity1 if he was spoilt1 it was by success1 not failure2 if corrupted1 it was by popularity1 not neglect3 though it must be remembered that none of the ,pre-,raphaelites can justly pose as martyrs in the matter of a livelihood4 ,nor is it permissible to urge that fame1 at first well earned and richly justified1 entitles any great painter to repudiate the convictions and ideals on which that fame was built1 or to play with a reputation won at a heavy cost to himself and others4 ,it can only be assumed that ,millais1 in forsaking the high and steep paths which he had once chosen1 sincerely followed what he felt to be a more excellent way1 and honestly believed his decadence to be an advance upon his maturity4 ,to doubt this would be to pass the sternest moral condemnation on an artist of incomparable endowments1 and to brand him as the wanton betrayer of a sacred trust1 the deliberate concealer of a divine talent1 for which1 at the ultimate judgment-seat of art1 the inevitable account must at last be given4 ,speaking of this turning-point in ,millais's career1 ,mr4 ,ruskin said in #aheg3--8,the change in his manner from the years of #8,ophelia' and #8,mariana' to #aheg is not merely ,fall2 it is ,catastrophe2 not merely a loss of power1 but a reversal of principle2 his excellence has been effaced #8as a man wipeth a dish--wiping it and turning it upside down4'0 ,but the ,pre-,raphaelite movement1 so far from being at an end1 was now only emerging from the first tentative phase of its activity4 ,it had yet to be absorbed in a larger reformation1 and to act thereby even more potently than if it had remained the specific crusade of a clique or faction4 ,the difficulty which the historian finds at this crisis in the artistic career of ,rossetti and his friends1 and still more so in their subsequent developments1--the difficulty of defining strictly ,pre- ,raphaelite work1 and of deciding as to who of the now rapidly expanding circle of painters may justly be claimed as ,pre-,raphaelites1 is itself evidence of the permeating force of the initial movement1 and of the ready soil which was prepared for the dissemination of its dominant ideas4 ,for the circle of literary and artistic aspirants1 patrons1 students1 amateurs1 and connoisseurs of many grades and varied gifts who now surrounded ,dante ,rossetti1 included men whose names afterwards became honoured in fields of art quite untouched by ,pre-,raphaelitism in its distinctive form1 but imbued through their influence with fresh and quickening impulses of revival4 ,one of the most poetic of the painters intimately associated with the ,brotherhood was ,arthur ,hughes1 who1 though only eighteen at the time of its formation1 took an active share in its practical work1 and painted1 according to its main tenets1 with a rare facility and tender charm4 ,he was born in ,london in #ahcb1 passed through the ,academy ,schools without much recognition1 but won cordial admiration among the limited company who could then appreciate his work1 by his beautiful 8,april ,love0 in the ,academy of #ahed4 ,he was also singularly successful at a later date in a subject from ,keats's 8,eve of ,st4 ,agnes0--the source of inspiration for some of the finest work of the ,pre-,raphaelite leaders at various times4 ,like ,millais and several others of the band1 he attained considerable popularity as an illustrator of books4 ,his religious paintings1 moreover1 will demand attention among those of his more illustrious friends4 8,the ,cottager's ,return0 and 8,the ,reaper and the ,flowers0 may be remembered1 among others of his always graceful pictures1 by those who recall the first decade of ,pre-,raphaelite propaganda in public exhibitions4 ,he sat as the model for the hero in ,millais's 8,proscribed ,royalist0 of #ahec4 ,charles ,allston ,collins1 a son of ,william ,collins1 ,r4,a41 and brother of ,wilkie ,collins1 painted for some time in the manner of the ,pre- ,raphaelites1 but subsequently devoted himself to literature4 ,his first exhibited picture1 8,convent ,thoughts10 in the ,academy of #ahej1 shared with ,millais's 8,christ in the ,house of ,his ,parents10 the torrent of opprobrium showered on the innovators in that eventful year4 ,yet three of his works were accepted by the ,academy the following season1--8,lyra ,innocentium10 on a verse from ,keble2 representing a young girl in a white gown against a background of blue2 8,may in the ,regent's ,park10 a wonderfully minute study of foliage1 as if seen through a window opening close upon the trees2 and 8,the ,devout ,childhood of ,saint ,elizabeth of ,hungary10 calling to mind the treatment by ,james ,collinson of the familiar renunciation-legend anent the same much-maligned saint4 ,the ,elizabeth of the 8,childhood0 is depicted as a homely-looking little girl of thirteen1 kneeling at the iron-barred oaken door of a chapel in the ,palace grounds4 ,her missal is laid on the doorstep beside her1 and she is imagined1 according to the account of her early piety1 to be at prayer on the inhospitable threshold of the shrine to which she cannot for the moment gain access4 ,charles ,collins acted as ,millais's model for 8,the ,hugenot0 and 8,the ,black ,brunswicker40 ,he married a daughter of ,charles ,dickens1 who posed with him as the lady in the 8,hugenot40 ,william ,l4 ,windus1 a ,liverpool artist and member of the ,academy of that city1 made his modest but genuine fame chiefly through his powerful romantic picture of 8,burd ,helen10 the 8burd0 or sweetheart of the ,scottish border ballad1 who swam the ,clyde in order to avenge herself upon a faithless lover4 ,the work was pronounced by ,ruskin to rank second only in order of merit to ,millais's 8,autumn ,leaves0 in the ,royal ,academy of #ahef4 ,he painted altogether some eight or ten pictures of a very earnest and imaginative kind1 of which one of the finest was entitled 8,too ,late10 and represented a dying girl whose lover had forsaken her and returned too late for reparation4 8,the ,surgeon's ,daughter0 is also remembered as a composition of much chastened and subdued power4 ,windus ceased painting at an early age1 and was lost sight of by the ,brotherhood4 ,robert ,b4 ,martineau was a pupil of ,holman ,hunt1 but painted1 among some three or four pictures which constitute the brief total of his achievements1 only one of striking merit1--8,the ,last ,day in the ,old ,home10 which for sincerity and depth of feeling won considerable appreciation in #ahfe4 ,his career was cut short by untimely death soon afterwards4 ,cave ,thomas1 who so infelicitously christened 8,the ,germ10 had gained a prize in the ,westminster ,cartoon competition1 and was the painter of one very beautiful picture1 8,the ,protestant ,lady10 exhibited in the ,academy1 and greatly admired by the ,brotherhood4 ,he published in #ahfj a monograph entitled 8,pre-,raphaelitism ,tested by the ,principles of ,christianity20 and subsequently became art professor to the ,princess of ,wales4 ,mr4 ,frederick ,sandys was not personally known to the leading ,pre- ,raphaelites until #aheg1 and was by that time too original and accomplished an artist to be claimed by them as a disciple1 but his work was for some time intimately associated with theirs4 ,he was to the last a valued friend of ,rossetti1 who always affirmed that while in draughtsmanship he had no superior in ,english art1 his imaginative endowment was of the richest and rarest kind4 ,mr4 ,henry ,wallis is justly remembered by his one great picture1 8,the ,death of ,chatterton10 which touched popular feeling as its true pathos and dignity deserved to do1 and won universal praise4 ,mark ,anthony is rightly regarded by the ,pre-,raphaelites as the most poetic of their landscape painters4 ,his grandly simple and reposeful 8,old ,churchyard0 will compare even with ,millais's 8,vale of ,rest10 and his 8,nature's ,mirror0 with ,mr4 ,burne-,jones's 8,mirror of ,venus0 in later years4 ,mr4 ,john ,brett1 now famous in seascape1 was for some time intimate with the ,brotherhood2 and among friends and sympathizers on a similar footing may be mentioned ,val ,prinsep1 ,thomas ,seddon1 ,j4,d4 ,watson1 ,j4,f4 ,lewes1 ,w4,s4 ,burton1 ,spencer ,stanhope1 ,m4,f4 ,halliday1 ,james ,campbell1 ,j4,m4 ,carrick1 ,thomas ,morten1 ,edward ,lear1 ,william ,davis1 ,w4,p4 ,boyce1 ,j4,w4 ,inchbold1 and1 by no means least1 ,john ,hancock1 a young sculptor who won an ,art ,union prize in #ahdh with a bas-relief of 8,christ's ,entry into ,jerusalem40 ,he was a friend and fellow-worker with ,woolner1 and fell so far 7with ,rossetti7 under the fascination of the ,dante legends as to accomplish a very fine statue of 8,beatrice0 in or about #aheb4 ,one other artist of the first rank in his generation remains to be named1--,frederick ,shields1 an intimate and warmly-loved friend of ,rossetti1 cherished by him in close and unbroken companionship even to the hour of death2 and in point of critical estimate pronounced by him to be one of the greatest of living draughtsmen1 taking rank with ,sir ,frederick ,leighton1 ,sir ,noel ,paton1 and ,mr4 ,sandys4 ,such were a few of the personalities that gathered between #ahdh and #aheh around the three prime movers in the ,pre-,raphaelite revolt4 ,to claim them as merely1 or chiefly1 satellites drawn into the orbit of genius1 or as forming a distinct and coherent school1 would be both foolish and unjust4 ,to attempt an estimate of their relative merit independent of1 or in proportion to1 the artistic work of the ,brotherhood1 would be no less invidious than unprofitable4 ,the glory of ,pre-,raphaelitism was that it gave the utmost play to individual methods1 and even idiosyncrasies1-- nay1 that its very first principle was 8each for himself0--painting his own impressions1 his own ideals--and no imitation of one artist by another4 ,its primary insistence lay on the watchword of all ,protestantism--the authority of the individual conscience as against that of a class or a system1 and the immediate access for every soul to the source of its highest inspiration4 ,therefore the 8diversities of gifts0 which flourished and increased under the sway of the ,pre-,raphaelite spirit were the best evidence of that spirit's quickening power4 8,a man will always emphasize10 says ,mr4 ,p4,g4 ,hamerton1 writing on the ultimate effects of the movement1 8those truths about art which most strongly recommend themselves to his own peculiar personal temperament4 ,this comes from the vastness of art and the variety of human organizations4 ,for art is so immense a study that no one man ever knew the whole truth about it40 ,in other words1 all the ,pre-,raphaelite painters in any sense worthy of the name are intensely individual in quality1 and cannot be classed1 arranged1 or compared together in the order of a system or a school4 ,each artist must make his original and distinctive contribution to the sum-total of artistic truth2 must paint the single aspect1 or the most familiar aspect1 of the life around him which presents itself to his mind4 ,the more honest he is1 and the more true to his own observations and convictions1 the more inevitably will he see the world through his own spectacles--well for his superficial happiness1 at all events1 if they be rose-coloured1 and not of a more sombre hue4 8,we all10 says another art-critic1#e 8have a sense of some particular colour1 and because we can paint this colour best we do so at all times and in all places4 ,this may be unconscious on our part--this predilection for a particular colour2 but we all unconsciously blab the fact to others2 we talk in our dream of art1 and tell all our secrets4 ,old ,david ,cox1 when out sketching with his pupils1 would go behind them while at work and say to one1 #8,ah1 you see green2' to another1 #8,you see purple1' #8,you see red1' #8,you see yellow4' ,so it is with the colour vision of many who are called ,masters4 ,we can identify almost any landscape of our more prominent painters by their special idiosyncrasy of colouring1 such as ,cuyp with his evening yellows1 ,linnell with his autumnal browns1 or ,danby with his sanguinary sunsets4 ,these colours1 which are exceptional with external nature1 are the rule with them4 ,not only is this so with regard to colour1 but1 more or less1 we put ourselves1 form and feature1 into our work1 and paint our own character1 physical as well as mental1 in all we do4 ,raphael1 on being asked where he obtained the type of his ,madonna1 replied1 #8out of his own head1' which really meant that he had unconsciously painted his own fair features3 and this ideal was what he eternally repeated4 ,so was it with ,michaelangelo1 ,leonardo1 ,murillo1 ,rubens1 ,vandyke--they all portrayed themselves recognizably4 ,there is a picture of ,jesus and the twelve ,apostles in which the whole thirteen faces are all alike1 and every one an identifiable copy of the painter's own4 ,of course where the face and form are noble we have the less to object to40 ,this indeed is the crux of the whole matter4 ,as the man is1 so will his work be4 ,to portray one's very self--and first to have such a self as can dignify the portrayal2 to paint faithfully what one sees--and first to see the true and the beautiful in the familiar and the commonplace2 to depict the world in which one lives--living in a world apart1 noble and fair1 full of opportunities1 if also of mysteries1 with bright horizons1 however low the sun2 and yet to be ever conscious of wider worlds than the imagination can compass though the heart may yearn over them like the heart of him who said ,homo sum2 nihil humana mihi alienum puto3 this is fine art2 this is 8the vision and the faculty divine40 8,produce great ,persons60 cries ,browning1--8the rest follows40 ,therefore it is safe for those who in any real sense know ,rossetti to prophesy1 with ,mr4 ,harry ,quilter1 that 8the day will surely come when it will be seen that the essence of what is now known as ,pre-,raphaelitism was not the influence of a school or a principle1 but simply the influence of one man1 and that man ,dante ,gabriel ,rossetti40 ,personal ascendency1 says ,emerson1 is the only force much worth reckoning with4 ,and if that ascendency1 over many who never saw ,rossetti on earth1 has become an intimate and precious inspiration1 a motive-impulse abidingly sacred and high1 what must it have been to those who knew him in the flesh8 ,mr4 ,w4,m4 ,rossetti thus succinctly sums up the immediate issue of the movement which his brother inspired3--8,as it turned out1 the early phases of the movement did not repeat themselves on a more extended scale4 ,partly1 no doubt1 through the modification of style of the most popular ,pre-,raphaelite1 ,mr4 ,millais1 and partly through the influx of new determining conditions1 especially the effect of foreign schools and of ,mr4 ,leighton's style 7this was written in #ahfe71 ,pre-,raphaelitism flagged in its influence towards the production of what are distinctively termed ,pre-,raphaelite pictures just at the time when it had virtually won the day4 ,but the movement had broken up the pre- existing state of things1 and the principles and practices which it introduced took strong root1 and germinated in forms not altogether expected4 ,pre-,raphaelitism aimed at suppressing such styles of painting as were exemplified by ,messrs4 ,elmore1 ,goodall1 and ,stone at the time of its starting2 and it did suppress them40#f ,the relation of ,pre-,raphaelitism to the 8foreign schools0 here referred to is as much a matter of historical controversy as the relation of ,rossetti to ,italy is of biographical criticism2 nor is it easy to determine how far the ,pre-,raphaelite movement in ,england was the effect or the cause of similar waves of experiment in ,france and ,germany1 and how far all such impulses were but the symptoms of a great social and ethical development in ,european life4 ,but while the ,barbizon ,school must be seriously recognized as working side by side with the ,pre-,raphaelites upon kindred ideals1 and even surpassing them at some points in a certain largeness of outlook on humanitarian themes1 the influence of ,cornelius and ,overbeck in ,germany1 with the very crude and sickly medivalism which they affected1 has no doubt been greatly overrated1 and may be dismissed as having very little to do with the main current of the romantic revival4 ,in ,france1 ,corot and ,millet1 ,daubigny and ,rousseau1 had taken their stand against the old ,heroic ,school in art1 just as ,thophile ,gautier and ,victor ,hugo had taken it against the ,academies of literature4 ,in ,england1 it was the task of ,rossetti and his comrades 8to force10 as it has been aptly expressed1 8an artificial art backed upon nature's reality2 and they did it amid neglect1 misunderstanding1 and even coarse vituperation40 ----- ,footnote #e3 ,gerald ,massey3 8,lectures on ,pre-,raphaelitism10 #aheh4 ,footnote #f3 ,w4,m4 ,rossetti3 8,fine ,art2 ,chiefly ,contemporary40 ,,chapter ,v4 ,,later ,,developments ,,of ,,the ,,movement4 ,the ,pre-,raphaelites as ,book-,illustrators--,moxon's 8,tennyson0--,the 8,oxford and ,cambridge ,magazine0--,the ,oxford ,frescoes--,oxford ,patrons of ,millais and ,hunt--,departure of ,hunt for ,palestine--,the ,pictures of ,madox ,brown--,further ,developments of ,rossetti's ,painting--,marriage and ,bereavement--8,beata ,beatrix0--,replicas--,life at ,chelsea--,later ,models-- ,designs for ,stained ,glass--,visit to ,penkill--8,dante's ,dream0-- ,publication and ,reception of the 8,poems0--,paintings of ,rossetti's ,last ,decade--,death at ,birchington4 ,the first and most fruitful decade of ,pre-,raphaelitism in painting and poetry saw also the excursion of several of its leaders into the realm of book-illustration4 ,in #ahee ,rossetti1 ,millais1 and ,arthur ,hughes combined to make a series of drawings for the second edition of a little volume of verse entitled 8,day and ,night ,songs10 by ,william ,allingham1 a young poet well known to the ,brotherhood since #ahdi4 ,the efforts were not of an ambitious character4 ,the weird little group of fairies dancing in the moonlight1 by ,arthur ,hughes1 reflected vividly the influence of ,blake4 ,rossetti's 8,maids of ,elfinmere0 were of his most angelic-medival type1 ascetically beautiful1 and yet1 if the phrase may be permitted1 with a certain sensuous severity of look1 a delicate and half-mystic passion1 as of pure spirits newly wakened to the tenderness of the flesh4 ,a more important experiment in the same direction was made in #aheg1 when ,rossetti1 ,millais1 and ,holman ,hunt appeared among the illustrators of ,moxon's edition of 8,tennyson40 ,intimately charmed as they had all been with the 8,idylls of the ,king10 and with such entirely 8,pre-,raphaelite0 poetry as 8,the ,lady of ,shalott10 the draughtsmen could hardly have found a more congenial sphere for design4 ,the volume affords one of the most interesting records of the transitional work of the three painters4 ,woolner's fine medallion of the young laureate formed the frontispiece4 ,then followed ,millais's 8,mariana0--a composition wholly distinct from1 and far inferior to1 his 8,mariana in the ,moated ,grange10 which had been shown in the ,academy of #ahea4 ,the face of this ,mariana is hidden in her hands as she turns with bowed head from the window1 and from the sunset that mocks her grief with its imperturbable glory heedless and afar4 ,much less conventional in spirit is the passionate1 strained figure of ,rossetti's 8,mariana in the ,south10 crouching on her unrestful bed1 and kissing the feet of the crucifix above her as she draws from her bosom the 8old letters breathing of her worth40 ,in the design for 8,the ,lady of ,shalott0 ,holman ,hunt exhibits traces--very unusual for him--of the influence of ,rossetti upon his own work4 ,for pathetic dignity and sensuous grace1 the entangled lady1 girt about with the web of dreams1 might well stand among ,rossetti's children1 and not be detected as of other birth4 ,rossetti's own 8,lady of ,shalott0 is much less fair a type1 and belongs to the earliest and most archaic manner of his ,arthurian period4 ,much more characteristic of the painter's individuality is ,holman ,hunt's 8,oriana10 a grave1 strong woman like his later ,madonnas1 whose mien belies the conventional sex-theory which ascribes to man alone the 8wisdom-principle10 and assigns to womanhood the principle of 8love40 ,rossetti1 again1 seems to have been largely influenced by ,madox ,brown in his illustration to 8,the ,palace of ,art10 save for the highly characteristic drawing of the girl at the organ1 whose pose is almost identical with that of the dead ,beatrice in 8,dante's ,dream10 of a much later date4 8,sir ,galahad0 is1 however1 entirely original in manner1 and represents the best level of ,rossetti's ,arthurian designs4 ,it shows the knight halting1 weary but not dispirited1 at a wayside shrine1 and bending with worn and yet resolute face over the holy water that awaits the pilgrim-worshippers4 ,his horse1 bearing the white banner marked with the red cross of sacred chivalry1 stands at the gate1 and a group of nuns are seen within1 ringing the chapel bell4 ,the facile simplicity and grace of ,millais1 who was more accustomed to the task of book-illustration than his collaborateurs1 found favourable scope in 8,edward ,grey0 and 8,the ,day-dream10 in which the figure of the half-awakened girl in the ,sleeping ,palace is drawn with exquisitely tender charm4 ,the edition1 on the whole1 probably tended to increase the reputation of the ,pre-,raphaelites as draughtsmen1 and to dispel some hard-dying illusions as to their distinguishing qualities in design1 though its independent merits were not of exceptional mark4 ,only once again does ,rossetti appear in the field of book illustration4 ,in #ahfb he executed two designs for the first volume of poems published by his sister1 ,miss ,christina ,rossetti1 under the title of 8,goblin ,market40 ,these drawings 78,buy from us with a golden curl0 and 8,golden head by ,golden head07 were followed in #ahff by two more of a similar character 78,the long hours go and come and go10 and 8,you should have wept her yesterday071 to illustrate the second volume of poetry from the same pen1 entitled1 8,the ,prince's ,progress40 ,but the fame of the ,pre-,raphaelites as poets was already enhanced1 within an increasing circle of appreciators1 by the publication1 in #ahef1 of a journal which may1 to some extent1 be regarded as a successor to the 8,the ,germ40 8,the ,oxford and ,cambridge ,magazine10 edited by ,mr4 ,godfrey ,lushington1 had the better fortune to survive for a year1 in monthly numbers2 though all its contents were anonymous1 and its issue involved no less labour and anxiety on the part of its sponsors1 if not so much pecuniary onus as in the case of the more luxuriously printed and illustrated 8,germ40 ,the new publication contained several of ,rossetti's finest poems1 such as 8,the ,staff and ,scrip10 and 8,nineveh10 and a series of medival romances and poems by two young artists destined henceforth to be intimately associated with the ,pre-,raphaelite movement1 and to exert important influence on its later developments-- ,william ,morris and ,edward ,burne-,jones4 ,both were ,oxford men1 and had been close friends at ,exeter ,college1 whence in #ahef came ,burne-,jones to ,london with the express desire of meeting and knowing ,dante ,rossetti1 his senior by five years2 he having been born in ,birmingham on the #bhth of ,august1 #ahcc1 and educated at ,king ,edward's ,school in that city1 proceeding to ,oxford in #ahec4 ,it was at the ,working ,men's ,college in ,great ,ormond ,street that ,burne- ,jones first saw ,rossetti1 and1 through the introduction of ,mr4 ,vernon ,lushington1 entered upon the friendship which was to save him 7as his friend ,william ,morris was similarly saved7 from adopting1 as had been intended1 the ,church as his profession1 and thus depriving1 the world of a service no less religious in the highest sense1 and no less potent a factor in the ethical awakening of to-day4 ,the ,working ,men's ,college1 now rich in annals of some of the most significant intellectual movements of the mid-century1 was at that time a centre of enthusiastic work in art and literature4 ,rossetti and his friends took a considerable share in the lecturing and class-teaching of which ,charles ,kingsley and ,f4,d4 ,maurice were the popular and indefatigable leaders4 ,hither also came ,ruskin1 of whom ,rossetti records with loyal admiration how one night1 being asked in an emergency to address the drawing-class1 he made1 without any preparation1 8the finest speech ,i ever heard40 ,rossetti's growing intimacy with ,oxford collegians1 and the ties of sympathy already formed in ,oxford round the ,pre-,raphaelite painters by the clientle of ,millais and ,hunt1 now led him into an enterprise which has been the subject of much ,philistine mirth1 and of some laboured apologetics on the part of the too-serious historian4 ,there is no doubt that ,rossetti and his collaborateurs made quite as merry as any of their critics over the ludicrous failure of their dbut as fresco- painters in #aheg4 ,but it was very natural that ,rossetti1 with his early enthusiasm for the fresco style yet awaiting an outlet1 should have seized eagerly at the chance of trying his 'prentice hand on so engagingly favourable an area as the new hall of the ,oxford ,union ,debating ,society4 ,visiting the city in company with ,william ,morris during the summer months1 ,rossetti was shown over the freshly completed building by his friend ,mr4 ,woodward2 and observing the blank spaces of the gallery window-bays1 impulsively offered to paint on them a series of the 8,morte ,d',arthur0 subjects which had so much engrossed his fancy during the past three years4 ,the suggestion was readily agreed to1 and ,rossetti began to collect recruits for the campaign1 which he perceived would afford ample scope for other labour than his own4 ,accordingly1 at the commencement of the long vacation1 a company of six young enthusiasts1 embarrassingly ignorant of the first technical elements of mural painting1 but unabashed by any such details in the path of success1 fell confidently upon their fascinating task4 ,the party consisted of ,rossetti1 ,burne-,jones1 ,william ,morris1 ,arthur ,hughes1 ,val ,prinsep1 ,spencer ,stanhope1 ,alexander ,monro1 and ,j4 ,hungerford ,pollen1 then ,proctor at the ,university1 who had already won some distinction by his painting of the beautiful roof in ,merton ,college ,chapel4 ,the roof of the ,debating ,hall was now successfully painted1 in a grotesque design1 by ,william ,morris1 who also undertook one of the window-bays1 and proposed as his subject 8,sir ,palomides' ,jealousy of ,sir ,tristram and ,iseult40 ,alexander ,monro1 the sculptor of the party1 executed the stone shield over the porch4 ,burne-,jones selected for his fresco 8,nimu brings ,sir ,peleus to ,ettarde after their ,quarrel20 ,arthur ,hughes proposed 8,arthur ,conveyed by the ,weeping ,queens to ,avalon after his ,death20 ,val ,prinsep1 8,merlin ,lured into the ,pit by the ,lady of the ,lake10 and ,j4 ,hungerford ,pollen1 8,king ,arthur ,receiving the ,sword ,excalibur from the ,lady of the ,lake40 ,rossetti's subjects were 8,sir ,galahad ,receiving the ,sangrael0 and 8,sir ,launcelot before the ,shrine of the ,sangrael40 ,the knight1 in this last design1 has just attained the sacred goal of his pilgrimage1 and in his weariness has sunk down in sleep upon the threshold2 but his sleep1 even in that hour1 is haunted by the face of ,guinevere4 ,so powerful was this composition in romantic force and imaginative fervour1 especially in the haunting1 passionate face of the ,queen1 as to make the speedy obliteration of this and its companion frescoes the more deplorable1 in spite of the obvious crudities and incompetencies that blemish the whole series of designs4 ,obliterated they became1 however1 and hopelessly beyond restoration1 within a very short time of their commencement2--finished they never were4 ,incredible as it seems1 in these days of superior wisdom in the ,young ,person anent matters of ,art1 these brilliant young painters of #aheg--three at least of them now in the first rank of fame in their several spheres--had not even attempted to prepare the raw brick surface for the reception of their pigments1 but had cast their ordinary oil-colours direct upon the inhospitable wall4 ,time and the atmosphere made short work of such artless challenges of decay2 and before any of the frescoes had attained completion the ardent little band were obliged to confess themselves defeated1 and to retire somewhat ignominiously from the field4 ,the enterprise had its pathetic1 its humorous1 and its entirely delightful side4 ,the financial arrangement with the ,oxford ,union ,council was that they should defray all necessary expenses incurred by the artists2 and of this advantage the young ,bohemians appear to have availed themselves to the full4 ,anecdotes abound to tell of the hilarious but very harmless festivities which mitigated the discouragements of their task4 ,a contemporary undergraduate well recalls the mirth and chatter which he heard day by day as he sat in the adjacent library4 ,such a group of congenial spirits could not fail to enjoy the conditions of their companionship as much as the audacity of their task4 ,they were favoured1 further1 with a new acquaintanceship of a very welcome kind2 for it was here that another young poet1 ,algernon ,charles ,swinburne1 was now introduced1 as an undergraduate at the university1 to the artists at their work1 and added an important link to the chain of memorable friendships woven in these early years among the galaxy of genius which has illumined the ,england of to-day4 ,it was in ,oxford also1 at the theatre one evening1 that ,rossetti saw1 and succeeded in getting introduced to1 the beautiful lady who afterwards became ,william ,morris's wife1 and ,rossetti's most cherished friend through all his troubles4 ,she was the model for his 8,day-dream0 and several others of the finest of his maturer works4 ,the hapless frescoes are now hardly recognizable upon the ,oxford walls1 but their dim ghosts linger1 like the kindly witnesses of days fruitful1 at least1 in loves and friendships of sacred import on the lives of the young sojourners in that 8home of lost causes1 and forsaken beliefs1 and unpopular names1 and impossible loyalties10 as ,matthew ,arnold called it4 ,moreover1 it was at ,oxford that the ,pre-,raphaelite movement1 five or six years earlier1 had found some of its first and most generous patrons2 such as ,mr4 ,james ,wyatt1 the well-known picture-dealer1 who was among ,millais's readiest buyers1 but died in #ahec1 and ,mr4 ,thomas ,combe1 the ,university printer1 who1 through ,millais's influence1 purchased ,holman ,hunt's youthful and little-known picture1 8,christian ,priests ,escaping from ,druid ,persecution10 in #ahej4 ,about three years later1 ,holman ,hunt was on a visit to ,mr4 and ,mrs4 ,combe while his greater work1 8,the ,light of the ,world10 was in process2 and at their house he became acquainted with the young curate of ,st4 ,paul's1 ,oxford2 ,venables by name4 ,he was a man saintly in face and character2 afterwards ,bishop of the ,bahamas1 and long since dead4 ,whether he actually gave sittings to ,hunt1 or was avowedly the model for the ,christ of the picture1 does not appear1 but those who knew ,venables at the time insist upon the absolute faithfulness of the portraiture4 ,this face it was which certain critics1 unable to dissociate their conception of the ,saviour from the conventional ,raphaelesque type1 condemned instantly as 8the face of a ,judas40 ,the picture was purchased by ,mr4 ,combe1 and subsequently presented by his widow to ,keble ,college1 ,oxford1 where it hangs to-day4 ,of the difficulties which attended the painting1 and of the extraordinary labour bestowed upon it as it slowly grew beneath his hand in the little studio then at ,chelsea1 ,mr4 ,hunt has given us his own significant record1--how1 night after night1 when the moon was in a favourable quarter1 he would so dispose his curtains and draperies1 easels and lamps1 as to yield him the peculiar light for which he was striving1 and at the same time to afford for curious observers an endless speculation as to the mysterious proceedings of the eccentric young artist within4 8,the ,light of the ,world0 is now perhaps the most familiar1 to ,english eyes1 of any ,pre-,raphaelite pictures1 unless we except the less esoteric 8,hugenot0 of ,millais4 ,the 8,hugenot10 indeed1 would undoubtedly be taken by general estimate to point the high-water mark of ,millais's fame and genius1 in spite of the splendour of the 8ninth wave0--if one may push the metaphor so far--which issued ten years later in 8,the ,eve of ,st4 ,agnes0 and 8,the ,enemy ,sowing ,tares40 ,the 8,hugenot0 appeared with 8,ophelia0 in #aheb2 ,hunt's 8,light of the ,world0 in #ahed4 ,and the 8,hugenot0 it was that first took unmistakable hold upon the public taste1 and created a higher taste than it appealed to1 carrying the emotion awakened with it on to higher planes than had yet been reached in ,english criticism4 8,the ,order of ,release10 in the following year1 consummated the triumph of the young painter1 and was enhanced in fame by ,kingsley's allusion to it in 8,two ,years ,ago40 8,the ,proscribed ,royalist0 and the 8,portrait of ,ruskin0 may be regarded as the last products of ,millais's rigidly ,pre-,raphaelite period1 which terminated1 with ,rossetti's1 about #ahec4 8,the ,rescue0 and 8,the ,random ,shot10 or 8,l',enfant du ,regiment10 in #ahee1 8,sir ,isumbras at the ,ford3 ,a ,dream of the ,past10 or 8,knight ,crossing a ,ford10 in #aheg1 and 8,the ,vale of ,rest10 in #aheh1 are purely transitional works1 while1 with the notable exception of the two later masterpieces specified above1 8,the ,black ,brunswicker0 of #ahfj1 may be said to mark the final merging of the ,pre-,raphaelite heretic into the popular ,royal ,academician4 ,his formal election as ,r4,a4 took place in #ahfc4 ,he was made1 in #ahhc1 a member of the ,institute of ,france1 and was1 in #ahhe1 the first ,english artist to be offered and to accept a baronetcy of the ,united ,kingdom4 ,he has also become a member of the ,academies of ,edinburgh1 ,antwerp1 ,rome and ,madrid1 and has been honoured at ,oxford with the complimentary degree of ,d4,c4,l4 ,his marriage in early life with ,miss ,euphemia ,chalmers ,gray was anticipated in one of the most pleasing of his female portraits in #ahec4 ,meanwhile the companion of his student days had entered upon a path of more obscure and arduous toil1 in the pursuit of an ideal too exalted to endure compromise with any standards of the merely picturesque1 or to lend itself readily to fluent and attractive expression4 ,the work of ,holman ,hunt1 among all the ,pre-,raphaelite painters1 has remained the most consistent and exclusive in its aims and methods1 and the least affected by surrounding influences1 either from his comrades or from the critical world4 ,his artistic development has been the most faithful to its origins1 and has presented the most unbroken continuity of thought and sentiment in its progress from the first 8note of resistance and defiance0 to the larger harmony of maturer years4 ,the boundaries of his transition-period are more difficult to define than in the case of ,millais and ,rossetti2 but1 at the same time1 the pictures that issued from his studio while ,rossetti was dabbling in experimental water- colours1 and ,millais compromising brilliantly between original genius and the sweet laxities of fame1 were of a passion and mastery which he never exceeded4 ,before the completion of 8,the ,light of the ,world10 in #ahed1 ,hunt had already painted 8,the ,awakening ,conscience0 7#ahec71 8,claudio and ,isabella0 7#ahea71 8,the ,hireling ,shepherd0 7#aheb71 and 8,the ,strayed ,sheep10 called also 8,our ,english ,coasts0 7#ahec74 ,he now departed to commence those long1 solitary1 and most fruitful sojourns in ,jerusalem1 ,bethlehem1 and less frequented parts of ,palestine1 which gave us1 at the cost of years of intense and continuous labour1 such great imaginative creations as 8,the ,scapegoat0 in #ahee1 8,christ in the ,temple0 in #ahfj1 8,the ,shadow of ,death0 in #ahgd1 and 8,the ,triumph of the ,innocents0 in #ahhe4 8,the ,shadow of ,death0 was purchased for #aj1ejj2 a price unparalleled for the work of any other living painter4 ,the picture now hangs in the ,manchester ,corporation ,gallery4 ,seven years were spent over 8,the ,triumph of the ,innocents10 pronounced by ,ruskin to be 8the greatest religious picture of the age40 ,the final version1 completed in #ahhe1 has recently been acquired by the ,walker ,art ,gallery in ,liverpool1 where it completes1 with ,millais's 8,lorenzo and ,isabella0 and ,rossetti's 8,dante's ,dream10 a noble trio of the best ,pre-,raphaelite type4 ,reverting1 as he did but once1 to more purely romantic subjects1 and to that haunting theme of ,keats which first inspired the young ,brotherhood1 ,mr4 ,holman ,hunt produced in #ahfg the finest of his work in that direction1 in the brilliant 8,isabella and the ,pot of ,basil10 which was the outcome of a visit to ,florence in that year4 ,his only important picture of later years has been the 8,may ,morning on ,magdalen ,tower10 a fascinating reminiscence of ,oxford life1 exhibited in #ahhi4 ,even more obscure and remote from the general routine of the modern studio1 more independent of criticism or of patronage1 was the earnest and thoughtful work of ,madox ,brown4 ,in his case the early discipline of art study1 and the isolation of unconventional ideals1 had been courageously survived before he knew ,rossetti1 and his path already chosen on the heights of original thought4 8,he was10 says ,mr4 ,w4,m4 ,rossetti1 8distinctly an intellectual painter2 intellectual on the side chiefly of human character4 ,the predominant quality in all his works is a vigorous thinking out of the subject1 especially as a matter of character1 and of dramatic incident and expression thus resulting4 ,this is the sort of intellect peculiarly demanded by pictorial art40 ,it is noticeable also that the two senior members1 if they may be so claimed1 of the ,pre-,raphaelite circle1 though not of the actual ,brotherhood--,ford ,madox ,brown and ,george ,frederick ,watts--were the only painters who brought into the movement any direct training from the continental schools4 ,the latter1 one year older than ,madox ,brown1 was born in ,london in #ahbj1 and succeeded in getting a picture into the ,royal ,academy as early as #ahcg4 ,the prize of #cjj gained in #ahdc in the ,westminster ,hall ,competitions enabled him to spend three years in ,italy1 after which1 on his return1 he won a prize of #ejj in the same contest1 with two more colossal frescoes of a similar kind4 ,madox ,brown1 meanwhile1 was entering upon the more uncompromising phase of reform4 ,it was during his studies in ,rome and ,paris1 when the ,gothic traditions of ,belgium had been strongly tempered by the ,latin heritage of the south1 that the ,pre-,raphaelite idea began to shape itself in his mind1 and to develop in him an original art which should create its own conditions and methods1 yield a rich harvest of artistic if not of professional success1 and exercise an immense power for good over the movement which his own single-handed battle with convention largely stimulated and inspired4 8,wicliff ,reading his ,translation of the ,bible to ,john of ,gaunt0 was afterwards acknowledged by ,madox ,brown as his first distinctly ,pre- ,raphaelite picture2 begun in #ahde1 and shortly followed by 8,pretty ,baa- ,lambs0--the only other work which the artist claimed as being painted implicitly in the early ,italian style4 ,the latter was subjected to much derisive criticism in the press4 ,yet the later work of this unquestionably great painter1 maintained as it was on his own rigidly independent lines1 and never merging into the fervid neo-,romanticism of ,rossetti1 ,millais1 and ,hunt1 may justly be accepted1 like theirs at its best1 as a consistent and superb development1 in a modern atmosphere and in the face of modern problems1 of the principles followed by the ,italian ,pre-,raphaelites1 and which as principles are adaptible in infinite variety to the fresh needs and new perplexities of successive generations of men4 ,in #ahdi the work of ,madox ,brown appeared for the first time beside that of ,rossetti4 8,cordelia's ,portion10 a highly imaginative and nobly dramatic composition1 was hung in the ,free ,exhibition at ,hyde ,park ,corner1 in company with ,rossetti's 8,girlhood of ,mary ,virgin40 ,his next important picture1 8,chaucer at the ,court of ,edward ,,iii410 occupied the painter for several years1 and was produced at the ,royal ,academy of #ahea--the memorable season of ,hunt's 8,valentine and ,sylvia10 and ,millais's 8,woodman's ,daughter40 ,the 8,chaucer10 now in ,australia1 received the ,liverpool ,academy's annual prize of #ej in #aheb1 and was selected by ,government for the ,paris ,exhibition ,loan ,collection of ,english paintings in #ahee4 ,the departure of his young friend ,woolner for ,australia in #ahed suggested to ,madox ,brown the subject of his most popular and in some respects his most successful picture1 8,the ,last of ,england10 finished in #ahee1 and now exhibited in the ,art ,gallery of the ,corporation of ,birmingham4 ,it was his visit to ,gravesend1 to bid farewell to ,woolner as he embarked for the ,antipodes1 at the time when the emigration movement was at its height1 that inspired the elder painter with that homely idyll of emigrant life--that masterpiece in the dramatic and emotional presentment of modern and familiar romance4 ,in #aheg he painted his great symbolic picture 8,work10 which has been pronounced 8the finest ,pre- ,raphaelite picture in the world20 a verdict not without justification1 but bordering on those facile abstractions of criticism wherein the sense of comparative excellence is apt to lose itself in the confusion of diverse methods in art4 ,the picture now hangs with the masterpieces of ,rossetti1 ,millais1 and ,holman ,hunt1 in the ,walker ,art ,gallery at ,liverpool4 ,among the many friends of that period who gave sittings to the artist for the principal figures were ,frederick ,denison ,maurice and ,thomas ,carlyle4 ,of the achievements of ,madox ,brown in the more obviously romantic and naturalistic fields1 perhaps the best known is the intensely passionate and brilliant 8,romeo and ,juliet0 parting at daybreak in the loggia to ,juliet's chamber4 ,in the same category1 though of various range and style1 may be briefly mentioned 8,waiting0 7#ahee71 a fine study of firelight and lamplight1 which appeared in the ,russell ,place ,pre- ,raphaelite ,exhibition of #ahef1 8,the ,death of ,sir ,tristram10 8,king ,ren's ,honeymoon10 the much earlier 8,parisina and ,manfred on ,jungfrau10 and 8,the ,dream of ,sardanapalus10 a work of recent years4 ,the romantic treatment of historical subjects is represented by the cartoons before mentioned1 executed prior to #ahdh1 and by such later compositions as 8,cromwell ,dictating to his ,secretaries10 8,milton and ,marvel10 and 8,cromwell on his farm at ,st4 ,ives10 completed in #ahgc4 ,of his religious pictures perhaps the most familiar is the austerely beautiful 8,entombment20 but it is not easy to excuse the discreditable oblivion permitted in this country to such paintings as 8,jesus ,washes ,peter's ,feet10 8,the ,transfiguration10 8,our ,lady of ,good ,children10 or 8,elijah and the ,widow's ,son20--oblivion only too explicable by a single trait of national character3 that the average ,briton will accept any innovation of taste or doctrine that will allow him to take his pleasure with the least amount of intellectual disturbance1 but he will never forgive the artist who calls upon him to think4 ,happily some worthier1 though very far from adequate1 recognition has been accorded to the almost colossal task of the painter's later years--the great series of historical frescoes on the walls of the ,town ,hall1 ,manchester1 commencing with the building of ,manchester by the ,romans1 and bringing the history of the city pictorially down to the present day4 ,outliving many younger leaders of the ,pre-,raphaelite movement1 ,madox ,brown died on the #fth of ,october1 #ahic4 ,the artistic development of ,madox ,brown does not1 then1 offer any abrupt or marked transition from the first crude workings to the perfected application of the ,pre-,raphaelite idea4 ,this he pursued steadfastly1 and with an unhasting diligence and quiet independence of spirit which indicates his kinship of temperament to ,holman ,hunt rather than to his impulsive and volatile pupil ,rossetti1 or to the impressionable ,millais of early days4 ,the complete outward divergence between the art of ,madox ,brown and that of ,rossetti after1 let us say1 the 8,triptych0 for ,llandaff ,cathedral1 painted by the latter in #ahei-ahfj1 illustrates not only the consistent progress of the former in his own distinctive line1 but also the extraordinary fertility and cumulative splendour of ,rossetti's genius1 which could create for itself during the next fifteen years so much more original and versatile a habit wherewith to clothe the noble and exquisite visions that thronged his imagination1 each with the urgency of 8a presence that is not to be put by40 ,illustration3 8,,pandora40 ,from the chalk4 ,by permission of ,mr4 ,theodore ,watts4 ,for the last twenty years of ,rossetti's artistic life he was known1 and should be judged1 supremely as a colourist2 and from #ahfb to #ahgd his technical power reached its highest level4 ,after completing in oils the 8,triptych0 for the ,llandaff altar-piece1 8,the ,infant ,christ ,adored by a ,shepherd and a ,king10 ,rossetti began to pursue more carefully1 and with increasing success both from the sthetic and the professional point of view1 the system of half-length or three-quarter length female figure- studies1 chiefly symbolic in motive1 which he had already attempted brilliantly in the 8,bocca ,baciata0 78,the ,kissed ,mouth07 of #ahei1 and which afterwards yielded such imaginative and technical triumphs as 8,beata ,beatrix0 7#ahfc71 8,the ,blue ,bower10 one of the most brilliant and sensuous of his paintings 7#ahfd72 8,lady ,lilith10 the type of purely physical loveliness1 described in his sonnet 8,body's ,beauty0 7#ahfd72 8,il ,ramoscello0 78,the ,branchlet071 or 8,bellebuona0 78,fair and ,good071 a gem of pearl-white colouring 7#ahfe72 8,monna ,vanna10 a superb study in white and gold 7#ahff72 8,venus ,verticordia10 personifying again the earthly ,pandemos1 with the apple of temptation in her hand 7#ahfd-ahgg72 8,the ,beloved1 or the ,bride of the ,canticles20 and 8,sibylla ,palmifera0 78,beauty the ,palm-giver071 both typifying intellectual and spiritual beauty 7#ahff-ahgc72 8,the ,loving ,cup0 7#ahfg72 8,aurelia10 or 8,fazio's ,mistress0 7,angiola of ,verona1 loved by ,fazio degli ,uberti1 mentioned by ,dante71 another somewhat sensuous model 7#ahfc-ahgc72 8,la ,pia10 the unhappy and captive wife of ,nello della ,pietra 7from ,dante's 8,purgatorio071 seen in her prison overlooking the ,maremma 7#ahfh-ahha72 8,mariana10 from ,shakespeare's 8,measure for ,measure0 7#ahfi-ahga72 8,pandora opening her fatal casket0 7#ahfi-ahge72 8,proserpine10 empress of ,hades1 enchained to the nether world 7#ahgb72 and 8,la ,ghirlandata0--8,the ,garland ,girl0--7#ahgc74 ,into these splendid and highly finished studies of the mystic beauty of womanhood1 ,rossetti poured the full soul of his gospel of romantic love--the love of absolute ,beauty absolutely worshipped to the utmost reaches of a consecrated sense1--8,soul's ,beauty0 and 8,body's ,beauty0 now analyzed and set in contrast each with each1 now reconciled and made at one in the last harmony of perfect life4 ,and in these great creations--revelations rather1 and perceptions of the inmost verities of things1 ,rossetti attains the consummation of imaginative art--the crowning of romanticism with the purged inheritance of the classic ideal4 ,it has been claimed that romance treats of characters rather than types2 prefers1 as we have said1 the particular to the universal2 and that ,rossetti's women are but splendid models1 lovely sitters brought by a happy chance into his path1 and used by him as the illustrations of that individual beauty which appealed most strongly to his taste4 ,but in these rich harvests of his technical maturity the very realism has discovered the ideal1 and as in pure portraiture1 the sincere essence of classicism is regained4 ,a peculiar pathos must for ever be associated with one of the first1 and1 in the judgment of many1 the most beautiful1 of these half-length oils1 the exquisite 8,beata ,beatrix10 now in the ,national ,gallery4 ,it is the supreme pictorial record of that central tragedy of ,rossetti's life1 even more intimately revealed to us in his verse1 which set him at the side of ,dante among mourning poets4 ,on the #bcrd of ,may1 #ahfj1 ,rossetti married1 at ,hastings1 the beautiful and gifted woman of whom his courtship had lasted nearly ten years4 ,the wedding had been delayed again and again through the uncertain health of ,miss ,siddal and the precarious circumstances of the brilliant but wayward young painter's life4 ,it was now accomplished with every augury of long-anticipated joy4 ,the honeymoon was spent in a brief tour through ,belgium1 concluding with a few days in ,paris1 where ,rossetti made his little impromptu sketch--so entirely out of his wonted trend of themes--8,dr4 ,johnson and the ,methodist ,ladies at the ,mitre20 a pen-and-ink drawing which he afterwards repeated in water-colours4 ,thence to the old rooms in ,chatham ,place1 ,blackfriars1 partially rebuilt and redecorated for the happy event1 ,rossetti brought home his bride4 ,the face of the long-desired wife now haunts the painter's easel more continually than before1 and recurs with ever-varying charm in nearly all his sketches and the very few finished pictures of the next two years4 ,to this period belong 8,lucretia ,borgia0 7entirely distinct from the 8,borgia0 of #ahea72 8,the ,heart of the ,night0 7from ,tennyson's 8,mariana in the ,south072 the beautiful 8,regina ,cordium0--8,queen of ,hearts0 7a title also used for other portraits at different dates72 8,bethlehem ,gate10 and the best of several subjects dealing with the legend of 8,st4 ,george and the ,princess ,sabra10 together with 8,monna ,pomona0 and 8,the ,rose ,garden0 of #ahfd1 8,sir ,tristram and ,iseult ,drinking the ,love ,potion0 7#ahfg71 8,washing ,hands0 7#ahfe71 and many replicas of the ,dante pictures of the previous decade4 ,and in the numerous rough and half-finished portrait sketches1 nameless but unmistakable1 of ,rossetti's 8,queen of ,hearts0 during those two brief years1 the shadow of the coming bereavement can be traced in the gradually sharpened features1 the more and more fragile hands1 the look of increasing pallor and weariness in the earnest face which rests1 in one of the latest drawings1 on the pillow all too suggestive of its habitual place4 ,on the #bnd of ,may1 #ahfa1 ,mrs4 ,rossetti gave birth to a still-born son4 ,from the consequent illness she rallied considerably during the autumn of that year1 and the immediate cause of her death in ,february1 #ahfb1 was1 unhappily1 an overdose of laudanum1 self-administered after a day of fatigue1 during the brief absence of her husband from the house4 ,of the circumstances of the fatal mischance1 in so far as they can ever be gleaned from that calamitous hour1 of the utterly unexpected shock awaiting ,rossetti's return1 and of the grief-stricken apparition which aroused the household of ,mr4 ,madox ,brown on ,highgate ,hill at dead of night with incoherent news of the fatality1 enough has already been written by those whose sad privilege it was to share in some measure with the overwhelmed sufferer the long pain of that supreme bereavement4 ,the pathetic incident that added to the sadness of the burial1 when the young widower hastily gathered up all his poetic manuscripts of the past ten years and laid them beside the fair face in the coffin1 a symbol of that best part of himself which he felt must go also to that untimely grave1 has become an oft-told tale2 and may now be laid in the reverent silence of affection and regret4 ,nor can the agony and prostration of the succeeding months be fitly recorded save in his own chronicles of song--the great elegiac 8,confessio ,amantis0 of the 8,house of ,life0 sonnets4 ,recruiting at last in slow degrees his powers upon brush and canvas1 he dedicated their first-fruits to the painting of that most beautiful and faithful memorial of the beloved dead--8,beata ,beatrix10 the ,blessed ,beatrice--,dante's ,beatrice2 for the immortal story loved in youth had now redoubled its hold upon his heart4 ,the picture was commissioned by ,lord ,mount ,temple1 who was from this time one of ,rossetti's most generous patrons and intimate friends4 ,it was begun at ,mr4 ,madox ,brown's house1 8,the ,hermitage10 on ,highgate ,hill1 but finished at ,stobhall1 in ,scotland1 whither ,mr4 ,brown and an equally devoted friend1 ,dr4 ,john ,marshall1 had taken the painter in the hope of restoring his now shattered health and assuaging the sorrow that had occasioned its collapse4 ,rossetti afterwards said of the 8,beata ,beatrix0 that no picture had ever cost him so much to paint1 but that in no other task had he been conscious of so perfect a mastery of his instruments4 8,,beata ,,beatrix40 ,from the ,national ,gallery4 ,illustration ,it should be remembered that of this picture1 and indeed of several of ,rossetti's finest and best-known works1 certain indifferent replicas exist which have been frequently mistaken for their originals4 ,the 8,beata ,beatrix0 in the ,birmingham ,art ,gallery was only half painted by ,rossetti1 and finished by ,madox ,brown4 ,again in the case of 8,the ,blessed ,damozel0 of a much later date1 the more familiar version is the inferior one4 ,there was also a smaller replica of 8,dante's ,dream10 shown in ,london at the ,guildhall ,loan ,exhibition of #ahib4 ,moreover1 it was ,rossetti's habit to execute most of his pictures in more than one medium2 thus many of his early pen-and-ink drawings were presently reproduced in water-colour2 the water-colour designs of #aheb-ahfb were afterwards transferred to oils2 and most of the important oil-paintings of his maturity were duplicated in coloured chalk2 some even passing through the pencil1 ink1 and water-colour stages also4 ,not infrequently it happened that the chalk version surpassed all the others1 as1 for instance1 in the grand 8,pandora0 of #ahgh-gi1 the most powerful of all his drawings in that medium1 and perhaps the greatest of his symbolic figures4 ,very often1 too1 he would begin a picture on a very small scale1 and gradually enlarge it through successive stages to its final size1 as in the case of 8,monna ,rosa10 concerning which he writes on the #ahth of ,june1 #ahfg1 to his patron1 ,mr4 ,f4,r4 ,leyland1 one of the most constant and sympathetic of his buyers and friends1--8,the picture is much advanced and in every way much altered1 as ,i have again had it considerably enlarged6 ,to begin a fresco as a pocket-miniature seems to be my rule in ,art40 ,the domestic calamity of #ahfb rendered a change of residence imperative to the young widower1 left desolate amid surroundings charged to the utmost with poignant memories of the past4 ,the old rooms in ,chatham ,place became unbearable to ,rossetti1 full as they were of associations of courtship as well as of married life4 ,he sojourned for a time in chambers in ,lincoln's ,inn ,fields1 and in the autumn of the same year he moved to ,no4 #af1 ,cheyne ,walk1 ,chelsea1 where he lived intermittently up to the time of his death4 ,it was a fine old house1 well suited to be an artist's abode2 and especially fortunate in a large garden1 which became a valuable resource to ,rossetti in those sad days in store for him when any emergence from the seclusion of home grew more and more distasteful to his mind4 ,by the end of ,october ,rossetti seems to have been established in his new dwelling1 which thenceforth it was his pleasure to adorn with all the quaint old curios he could lay his hands on4 ,in the natural revulsion of overwrought feeling1 he threw himself upon decorative hobbies of many kinds2 developed a passion for blue china and antique pottery2 cultivated oriental textures and old oak2 and haunted second-hand furniture warehouses with the pertinacious enthusiasm of the devout lover of a bargain4 ,his shelves groaned under their picturesque load of reliquary wares and studio-properties gathered from every age and clime4 ,here1 too1 flourished a whole colony of curious animals1 such as he delighted to indulge with unbridled license in his domains1--to the produce of countless anecdotes of their pranks1 and of the embarrassment of their victims4 ,the house was shared for some time with three brother-poets1--,swinburne1 ,george ,meredith1 and ,w4,m4 ,rossetti4 ,the last-named was for a considerable period a constant inmate2 the others1 less domesticated1 and of strong peculiarities 7as is the way of genius7 of habit and of taste1 presently departed1 and their places knew them only as visitors to the brilliant haunt of many other literary celebrities of the day4 ,it has been observed that the most intimate friends of ,rossetti's later years were drawn from the ranks of literature rather than art1--a circumstance which need not1 however1 be too closely paralleled with his own frequent and increasingly successful reversions to the poetic field4 ,it must be remembered that the ,pre-,raphaelite movement presents a combination of the highest poetry with the highest pictorial and decorative art incomparable with anything since the days of ,michaelangelo4 ,it was natural that the poetic wing of ,pre-,raphaelitism1 so to speak1 should attach itself more and more firmly to the great group of independent and specialistic poets of the age1 of whom no counterparts in original genius are to be found outside ,pre-,raphaelitism in modern ,english art4 ,as early as #ahee we find ,rossetti well acquainted with ,tennyson and in close friendship with ,browning and ,mrs4 ,browning2 afterwards with ,william ,morris1 several of whose poems were inspired by ,rossetti's pictures2 whose first volume1 8,the ,defense of ,guenevere10 was dedicated 8,to my ,friend ,dante ,gabriel ,rossetti1 ,painter10 in #aheh2 and whom ,rossetti pronounced to be 8the greatest literary identity of our time20 then with ,swinburne1 whom he placed 8highest in inexhaustible splendour of execution10 and whose first-fruits in the tragic drama1 8,the ,queen ,mother10 in #ahfj1 were similarly inscribed2 and later still with ,philip ,bourke ,marston1 the blind poet2 with ,george ,meredith1 ,edmund ,gosse1 ,john ,payne1 and many others of the choicest if not the most popular qualities of song4 ,from among the earliest of those memorable friendships there is preserved to us a fascinating record of one autumn evening1 typical of many more1 when the ,rossettis and the ,brownings assembled together to listen to ,tennyson as he read from manuscript his latest poem2--it is the now familiar pen-and-ink sketch of 8,tennyson ,reading ,maud20 one of those marvellously vigorous and convincing thumb- nail drawings which it was ,rossetti's wont to evolve1 in his inimitable method1 from the initial focus of a single blot4 ,in #ahfe we find ,rossetti writing to the 8,athenum0 to correct a statement which seems to have been made to the effect that he1 known chiefly as a water-colour painter1 was now attempting a return to oils4 ,the artist protested that he was then1 and always had been1 an oil- painter2 and indeed1 as we have seen1 he was just now at his zenith of power in that medium1 though the contrary impression made on the public is easily explicable in the light of his water-colour work of the previous decade1 and of the ,russell ,place ,exhibition of #ahef4 ,by this time the irreparable loss of the one loved model of his early prime was in some degree mitigated1 from the artistic side1 by the good fortune which secured for him henceforward some of the most beautiful sitters known to the artistic world of the day2 women of high culture and distinction1 who added to their willing service in the studio the grace of personal friendship and1 in several instances1 of patronage of the most sympathetic kind4 ,the austere and robust beauty of ,miss ,herbert1 the accomplished actress to whom he was introduced in #ahei1 lay1 as has been already said1 entirely apart from his most cherished ideals1 and seldom appears in his symbolic paintings4 ,but ,mrs4 ,aldham ,heaton1 a frequent and valued purchaser1 and a lady of presence more congruous with his favourite type1 sat for what appears to have been a second 8,regina ,cordium0 in #ahfa2 while in #ahfd was commenced his long and most artistically fruitful acquaintance with ,miss ,wilding1 the beautiful girl who served as the model for 8,sybilla ,palmifera10 8,la ,ghirlandata10 8,dis ,manibus10 8,veronica ,veronese10 8,the ,sea-,spell10 and several others of his most delicate and spiritual faces1 including a third 8,regina ,cordium0 in #ahff4 ,miss ,spartali1 afterwards ,mrs4 ,stillman1 was also a favourite model for some years1 and sat for 8,fiametta0 7distinct from 8,a ,vision of ,fiametta0 in #ahgh71 and for the lady on the right of the funeral couch in 8,dante's ,dream10--a work which remained on hand throughout this period4 ,apart from the models of his principal pictures1 ,rossetti painted at different times a goodly number of female portraits1 commencing the list of sitters with his mother and younger sister 7the elder died at a somewhat early age71 and including ,lady ,mount ,temple1 who became1 with her husband1 one of the few intimate friends of his seclusion in later years1 ,miss ,alice ,boyd1 the kindly hostess of some of his happiest visits to ,scotland1 yet to be recorded1 ,mrs4 ,william ,morris and her daughters--among them ,miss ,may ,morris1 now ,mrs4 ,halliday ,sparling1 who also appears in the 8,rosa ,triplex0 of #ahfi and #ahgd1 ,mrs4 ,burne-,jones1 ,mrs4 ,dalrymple1 ,mrs4 ,h4,t4 ,wells1 ,mrs4 ,leathart1 ,mrs4 ,lushington1 ,mrs4 ,virtue ,tebbs1 ,mrs4 ,c4 ,a4 ,howell1 ,mrs4 ,coronio1 ,miss ,heaton1 ,miss ,williams1 ,miss ,kingdon1 the ,misses ,cassavetti1 ,miss ,baring1 and ,mrs4 ,banks4 ,twice during these years of the gradual maturing of his technical power in oils did ,rossetti make excursions into a distinctive branch of decorative art1 the practice of designing for stained-glass4 ,as early as #ahfj1 ,william ,morris1 ,burne-,jones1 and a few others interested in this much-neglected craft established a firm which was known for some time under the name of ,morris and ,co41 and for which in #ahfa ,rossetti executed a series of seven effective cartoons for church windows illustrating the 8,parable of the ,vineyard10 or the 8,wicked ,husbandmen40 ,both designs are of extraordinary vigour and dramatic intensity2 strongly medival in directness and simplicity1 but with a large coherence and fulness of conception1 and a harmonious richness of workmanship breathing a more modern spirit into the ancient tale4 ,the dignity and earnestness of the drawing places it on a level with the best work of his purely romantic period1 but its technical finish shows the more perfect balance between conception and execution which he was rapidly attaining in his maturity4 ,the designs are now to be seen in the church of ,st4 ,martin on the ,hill1 ,scarborough4 ,a similar work was undertaken by ,rossetti six years later1 when it was proposed to dedicate a memorial window to his aunt1 ,miss ,margaret ,polidori1 in ,christchurch1 ,albany ,street1 ,regent's ,park1 where she had long been a regular attendant until her death in #ahfg4 ,rossetti chose for his subject 8,the ,sermon on the ,plain40 ,this design also was executed in stained-glass by the firm of ,morris and ,co41 and placed in the church in #ahfi4 ,by this time ,rossetti's commissions for pictures had happily become so numerous as to justify his seeking competent assistance in his studio4 ,his friend ,mr4 ,knewstub1 at first a pupil1 filled for some time the office of assistant4 ,then ,mr4 ,henry ,treffry ,dunn was engaged in #ahfg1 and remained with ,rossetti almost up to the date of his death4 ,it seems to have been in the years #ahfg-fh that his health1 never fully re- established after the physical and mental prostration of #ahfb1 began to give way beneath that most terrible and relentless of nervous maladies1 the special curse of the artistic temperament--insomnia4 ,to that slow and baffling torment1 by which ,nature sometimes seems to be avenging herself in a sort of frenzied jealousy upon her own handiwork1 ,rossetti's highly wrought sensibilities and overwhelming imagination made him the more easy prey4 ,his whole being was constitutionally endowed with that fatal faculty of visualizing the invisible1 of suffering more acutely under imagined than under realized pains 7though both were laid upon him7 which1 like an all-consuming fire1 burns itself out only with the life that feeds it4 ,of such sleepless nights as thus become the terror of their victims1 haunted with all memories and all fears1 ,rossetti has left us many a painfully vivid word-picture in his poetry2 supremely1 perhaps1 in that most tragic sonnet1 8,sleepless ,dreams0-- 8,girt in dark growths1 yet glimmering with one star10 ending with the despairing cry upon the deaf goddess of repose-- 8,o ,night1 ,night1 ,night6 art thou not known to me1 ,a thicket hung with masks of mockery1 ,and watered with the wasteful warmth of tears80 ,many such nights ,rossetti bore1 we may well believe1 before he fled at last1 when rational means seemed of no avail against his malady1 to that most dangerous source of ease1 the too free use of chloral4 ,several times he partially shook off the habit1 and intervals of comparative comfort and cheerfulness were frequent until #ahgb1 when other phases of illness1 independent of it though still of nervous origin1 further undermined the constitution already weakened by years of abnormal strain4 ,a respite of a very pleasant kind was afforded him in the successive autumns of #ahfh-fi by his visits to ,miss ,boyd at ,penkill1 in ,perthshire1 where1 in company with other congenial spirits1 he spent some weeks of comparative happiness and ease4 ,here he was induced to resume his poetry1 which1 save for a few significant sonnets1 had lain in abeyance since that sad day on which he had buried his manuscripts in the grave of his early love4 ,now1 yielding with much reluctance and conflict of heart to the persuasion of friends who knew the value of the poems thus lost to literature1 he gave permission for the coffin to be exhumed1 and the manuscripts removed4 ,the story of this delicate task1 and of its judicious and successful fulfilment under the personal superintendence of two or three intimate friends of the widower1 has already been related in detail by one of the eye-witnesses aforesaid4 ,the poems1 after seven years' concealment in the quiet grave in ,highgate ,cemetery1 were duly restored to their author's hand4 ,this having been done1 he set to work arranging1 re-writing1 and adding some of the finest work of his poetic maturity to a collection of poems which should be an immortal record and perpetuation of his love4 ,towards the close of #ahfi ,rossetti began to share with his friend ,william ,morris the romantic and picturesque old manor house of ,kelmscott1 near ,lechdale1 in ,gloucestershire2 a district full of interesting landscape1 and haunted by the inspiring shade of ,shelley1 who there wrote his characteristic fragment1 8,a ,summer ,evening in ,lechdale ,churchyard40 ,the scenery of the surrounding country is brought in vivid glimpses here and there into ,rossetti's poetry1 as1 for instance1 in 8,down ,stream0 78,between ,holmscote and ,hurstcote07 and other lyrics of his later life4 ,here he painted 8,the ,bower ,maiden0--a pretty country lass with marigolds4 ,but a great part of his time was still spent at home in ,chelsea1 where in #ahga he at last completed the finest oil version of 8,dante's ,dream40 ,save for the incomparable 8,beata ,beatrix10 it is the summing-up of all his highest interpretations of the ,dante spirit2 the consummation of his gospel of romantic love4 ,his friend ,mr4 ,val ,prinsep quotes ,rossetti as writing in a letter about this time3--8,i should like of all things to show you my big picture #8,dante's ,dream' now1 if you are ever in town4 ,indeed1 ,i should probably have written to you before this of the picture being in a state to see1 on the chance of its accelerating your movements townwards1 but was deterred from doing so by the fact that every special appointment ,i have made to show it has been met by the clerk of the weather with such a careful provision of absolute darkness for that day and hour1 that ,i tempt my fate no more in that way1 as the picture cannot absolutely be seen except in a fair light1 and one's nerves do not hold out for ever under such onslaughts4444 ,everyone who has seen the #8,dante's ,dream' 7not yet quite finished1 but close upon71 has seemed so thoroughly pleased with it that ,i think ,i may hope without vanity some progress has been made1 and this ,i feel sure ,i shall carry on in my next work4 ,of course ,i have only shown the #8,dante' to a few1 as otherwise ,i might spend my time in nothing else1 the picture blocking up the whole studio when displayed40 ,ten years later1 in #ahha1 the 8,dante's ,dream0 gained for the painter one of the very few popular triumphs of his lifetime4 ,it was exhibited at ,liverpool1 bought by the ,corporation of that city for #a1ejj1 hung in the ,walker ,art ,gallery1 where it now remains2 and instantly took rank among the greatest masterpieces of modern art4 8,fifty years hence10 said ,sir ,noel ,paton1 8it will be counted among the half-dozen supreme pictures of the world40 ,the story of the last ten years of ,rossetti's private life1 clouded by frequent ill-health1 and disturbed by that most intolerable of a poet's trials1 a literary controversy1 remains yet to be told by him who shared most intimately the seclusion and the affliction of that troublous period1 ,mr4 ,theodore ,watts2 whose oft-quoted sonnet to his friend1 as ,mr4 ,coulson ,kernahan has said1 gives a fuller picture of ,rossetti than volumes of prose could do1 and therefore commands insertion here3 8,i told thee of an island1 far and lone1 ,whose shores are as a harp1 where billows break ,in spray of music1 and the breezes shake ,o'er spicy seas a woof of colour and tone1 ,while that sweet music echoes like a moan ,in the island's heart1 and sighs around the lake1 ,where1 watching fearfully a watchful snake1 ,a damsel weeps upon her emerald throne4 ,life's ocean1 breaking round thy senses' shore ,struck golden song1 as from the strand of day3 ,for us the joy1 for thee the fell foe lay-- ,pain's blinking snake around the fair isle's core1 ,turning to sighs the enchanted sounds that play ,around thy lonely island evermore40 ,the mingled pain and privilege of ,mr4 ,watts's ministry was shared to a great degree by ,lord and ,lady ,mount ,temple1 ,mrs4 ,sumner1 ,dr4 ,gordon ,hake and his son1 ,mr4 ,george ,hake1 ,mr4 ,madox ,brown1 ,mr4 ,frederick ,shields1 and ,mr4 ,sandys4 ,mr4 ,leyland also saw him frequently1 and added generous and unremitting friendship to his patronage of the wayward painter's work4 ,he was the purchaser of some of the most important pictures of ,rossetti's last decade1 including the beautiful 8,dis ,manibus10 or 8,the ,roman ,widow10 7#ahgd71 which remains unsurpassed for delicate purity and depth of colour by any of the masterpieces of his prime2 8,mnemosyne10 or 8,la ,ricordanza10 or 8,the ,lamp of ,memory0 7#ahgf-gh71 one of his most noble and impressive symbolic figures2 8,the ,sea-,spell10 7#ahge-gg71 and a replica of 8,the ,blessed ,damozel0 7#ahgc-gg71 which he painted for ,mr4 ,william ,graham in illustration of his own poem3 8,the ,blessed ,damozel leaned out ,from the gold bar of heaven2 ,her eyes were deeper than the depths ,of water stilled at even3 ,she had three lilies in her hand ,and the stars in her hair were seven40 ,the publication1 in #ahgj1 of ,rossetti's volume of 8,poems10 containing1 together with some of his loveliest short lyrics1 8,the ,blessed ,damozel10 and the 8,house of ,life0 sonnets1 led the way for that unfortunate attack upon him in the critical press which undoubtedly contributed to the shortening of his days1 however regrettable may have been the hyper- sensitive manner in which the poet met his arraignment4 ,in #ahga an article signed 8,thomas ,maitland0 was published in the 8,contemporary ,review10 entitled 8,the ,fleshly ,school of ,poetry10 in which ,rossetti's poems were attacked1 from an avowedly moral point of view1 on the ground of sensuality4 ,ignoring the essential principles of all ,rossetti's work-- the sacredness of the senses as the instruments of the soul--the meaning of all physical beauty as the witness of an immanent ,god--the writer deliberately charged him with pandering to the lowest instincts of his readers1 and being1 in short1 the prophet of that later and grossly materialistic phase of ,european art of which the very name ,pre- ,raphaelite was a repudiation4 ,it is not surprising that to a deeply 7if undefinedly7 religious nature like ,rossetti's this should have seemed the hardest blow that could have been dealt at his art and at him4 ,the publication of the magazine article1 however1 seriously disconcerted him at the moment4 ,it was not until the offensive and wholly unfair indictment was re-issued in the following year in pamphlet form that it began to assume a more serious aspect in the victim's eyes4 ,criticism of his poetic methods he could have borne with equanimity4 ,indifference and neglect seldom troubled him4 ,he cared little for popularity1 and was no seeker after fame1 although he naturally desired the appreciation of those whose judgment was of real account in literature4 ,but he did care for his general reputation as a clean-lived and pure-minded man4 ,this charge assailed the ethical foundations of all his work4 ,he had seen in the loveliest things of earth the vessels and channels of the loveliness of heaven4 ,and that this should be counted to him for sensuality--that the love which had been to him 8a worship and a regeneration0 should be held up to scorn as a gross and carnal passion--that was the intolerable thing6 ,not that he lacked defenders4 ,his own answer1 under the title of 8,the ,stealthy ,school of ,criticism10 in the columns of the 8,athenum10 was more than supported by ,mr4 ,swinburne's indignant challenge1 8,under the ,microscope20 and other loyal friends contributed to a sufficient vindication4 ,save in the too morbid imagination of the poet1 the attack soon lapsed1 for the most part1 into the oblivion it deserved2 more especially since the writer1 a few years later1 had the manliness to retract his charge1 and to make a candid apology1 though a tardy one1for having uttered it4 ,but not so easily could the pain given to ,rossetti be overcome4 ,he now began to shrink intensely from society1 fearing at all points to encounter that suspicion of his artistic work4 ,suffering acutely from nervous prostration and insomnia1 he yielded himself the more fully to the fatal chloral habit which only aggravated his condition4 ,in the autumn of #ahgb he spent some weeks at the house of ,dr4 ,gordon ,hake at ,roehampton1 and proceeded thence with ,mr4 ,madox ,brown1 ,mr4 ,george ,hake1 and ,mr4 ,bell ,scott to ,stobhall in ,perthshire1 on the ,tay4 ,returning to the south in improved health1 ,rossetti and ,mr4 ,george ,hake proceeded at once to ,kelmscott ,manor1 where they settled for a considerable time4 ,rossetti indeed remained for nearly two years1 gradually resuming his artistic work1 and regaining at times something of his old vivacity and high spirits3 only a few friends went to and fro in visits full of mutual delight and inspiration4 ,the beautiful old house1 and the quaint1 romantic chamber that served for studio1 became the resort of poets and artists1 critics and connoisseurs1 disciples and aspirants1 in companies small indeed1 but brilliant and memorable as any that gathered round the young ,pre-,raphaelites in ,newman ,street or the maturer masters of art and song that assembled in ,cheyne ,walk1 ,chelsea4 ,mr4 ,william ,morris and his family were there frequently2 ,dr4 ,gordon ,hake made a visit1 and afterwards embodied his memories in his sequence of sonnets addressed to ,mr4,theodore ,watts1 8,the ,new ,day10 one of which deserves quotation3 8,o happy days with him who once so loved us6 ,we loved as brothers1 with a single heart1 ,the man whose iris-woven pictures moved us ,from ,nature to her blazoned shadow--,art4 ,how often did we trace the nestling ,thames ,from humblest waters on his course of might1 ,down where the weir the bursting current stems-- ,there sat till evening grew to balmy night1 ,veiling the weir whose roar recalled the strand ,where we had listened to the wave-lipped sea1 ,that seemed to utter plaudits while we planned ,triumphal labours of the day to be4 ,the words were his3 #8,such love can never die2' ,the grief was ours when he no more was nigh40 ,and as his health continued to improve1 ,rossetti's poetry and painting rose again to their highest level4 ,the former1 indeed1 is thought by some sound critics to reach at this juncture a superb merit unattained before2 for it was here that he wrote the first of the three great romantic ballads which mark the zenith of his poetic power4 8,rose ,mary0 stands supreme in this incomparable category4 ,nor did he ever far surpass1 if at all1 his pictures of this period1--8,the ,bower ,maiden0 7#ahgc7 for frank and vigorous natural beauty in the pretty child with the fresh-blowing marigolds1 8,dis ,manibus0 or 8,the ,roman ,widow0 7#ahgd7 for delicate and simple pathos in the treatment of the classic world2 and 8,proserpine0 7#ahgd7 for the sombre moral tragedy symbolized in the classic story1 seldom1 if ever1 so interpreted on canvas before4 ,in these years also he painted the beautiful 8,garland ,girl10 8,la ,ghirlandata0 7#ahgc71 and 8,veronica ,veronese0 7#ahgb71 called at first 8,the ,day-dream10 but wholly distinct from the later work of that date2 reverted1 or endeavoured to revert in sketches1 to his old fantasy of 8,michael ,scott's ,wooing10 and resumed a subject begun in #ahfd1 but never quite fully worked out1 8,the ,boat of ,love10 suggested by ,dante's second ,sonnet1--8,guido1 vorrei che tu e ,lapo ed io10 and representing ,dante and ,beatrice embarking in a boat with his friend and brother-poet ,guido ,calvacanti1 and his lady ,giovanna1 and ,lapo degli ,uberti and his love4 8,,the ,,boat ,,of ,,love40 ,by permission of the ,corporation of ,birmingham4 ,illustration ,in the autumn of #ahgd ,rossetti returned to ,chelsea1 and again made his headquarters at #af1 ,cheyne ,walk1 where he remained1 save for two visits to the seaside1 until #ahhj4 ,here he worked from time to time at the picture illustrative of his own early poem1 8,the ,blessed ,damozel10--the sole instance1 by the way1 of ,rossetti's completion of a subject in verse before attempting it on canvas2 and began what promised to be among the most profound of his mystical creations1 8,the ,sphinx0 or 8,the ,question10 and also the last subject he ever took from the 8,vita ,nuova0 of ,dante1 8,la ,donna della ,finestra10 or 8,our ,lady of ,pity40 ,these two1 as well as 8,the ,boat of ,love10 remained unfinished in his studio4 ,to this fruitful decade belong an excellent replica of an early water- colour1 8,the ,damozel of the ,sanct ,grael0 7#ahgd72 the exquisite crayon drawing 8,the ,spirit of the ,rainbow0 7#ahgg72 and four splendid oils1 8,the ,sea ,spell0 7#ahgf71 8,a ,vision of ,fiametta0 7#ahgh71 8,the ,day-dream0 and 8,mnemosyne0 or 8,the ,lamp of ,memory0 7#ahhj74 ,to #ahge is due 8,la ,bello ,mano0 78,the ,beautiful ,hand074 ,in #ahgi he made a crayon drawing1 which he called 8,sancta ,lilias10 for an ,annunciation2 depicting a girl unfolding a white scarf from a tall lily which she carries in her hand2 but the sketch was never finished1 nor advanced beyond the crayon stage4 ,in #ahge ,rossetti took for a time a pleasant and secluded house near ,bognor1--,aldwick ,lodge1 standing in its own grounds1 wellnigh buried in shrubbery1 in a lane west of the town1 and near 7as ,dr4 ,hake tells us in some delightful reminiscences of a visit there7 8to the roughest bit of beach on the ,sussex coast40 ,here1 gathering together his mother1 sister1 and aunts1 and such intimate friends as ,dr4 ,hake and ,mr4 ,theodore ,watts1 he enjoyed at the close of this year a ,christmas week to which he afterwards looked back as to one of the happiest he ever spent4 ,it was at ,bognor that ,rossetti1 influenced1 no doubt1 by his companionship1 woke for the first time to the magic of the sea4 ,it is extraordinary that so passionately romantic a spirit as his should have remained1 until the eve of his fiftieth year1 absolutely unaffected by that profound and intimate sway which the sea holds over the poetic nature once brought1 however distantly1 within even the rumour and echo of its majestic voice4 ,now the spell he had so long eluded was cast upon him with irresistible force4 ,he began to haunt the shore with a child's eagerness for the grandeur and the urgent mystery of tides4 ,day after day he paced the beach for miles together1 pursuing the new vision1 the new rapture of the stimulated sense4 ,the surf1 tumultuous and loud on that wild coast1 enthralled him like a charm2 the waves drove his fancy to new spheres2 his poetry was turned to fresh scenes and subjects2 he began to write 8,the ,white ,ship10 the first1 though perhaps not the greatest1 of his historic ballads4 ,for the time1 he was absorbed almost wholly in that revelation of splendour and power1--in the primal glories of sea and sky2 8two symbols of the infinite10 as the captive ,mazzini called them4 ,but when we wonder at the lateness of this sthetic development on ,rossetti's part1 we must remember that he was naturally without that love of terrestrial and cosmical ,nature for her own sake that is the commonly-accepted attribute of poets4 ,there was in his whole being no trace of ,pantheism1 no worship of external loveliness apart from conscious life4 ,to him the sole joy of life was in the human2 the supreme tragedy of life was in the sexual4 ,the conception of the two elemental principles--the man-principle and the woman-principle--striving1 uniting1 prevailing1 against all the forces of destiny1 sufficed him for his conception of the universe4 ,he was utterly alien to the ,wordsworth spirit2 its serene monism was abhorrent to him4 ,apart as he lived from intellectual speculation1 he was1 in his unformulated and unconscious philosophy1 dualistic to the core2 as all true ,romance must ever be4 ,for the essence of ,romance is in its recognition of the conflict between matter and spirit1 between ,nature and ,man4 ,even its joy and exultation in the physical life as the channel of the ,higher ,spirit takes its glory from the sense of conquest over the ,lower ,spirit which threatens it from the same unknown world behind all4 ,therefore there lies always beneath the awe and wonder of romance towards the natural and the supernatural world a deep instinct of rebellion1 of antagonism1 which debars it from the ,wordsworth spirit1 at peace with earth and heaven4 ,resignation there may be in romance2 acquiescence1 never4 ,there may come1 indeed1 a passionate and whole-hearted love of natural scenery1 a frank delight1 as in the ,celtic temper1 in every external object that can minister to man's sthetic enjoyment of beauty as a revelation of the divine4 ,but the limits of the divine grow more perceptible as man emerges from the childhood of the world4 8,there hath passed away a glory from the earth40 ,rossetti knew this--8knew0 it1 not in the intellectual sense of the word2 and therefore he could never turn to ,nature for that regenerating rest and peace which in some moods--not quite the highest--she can give4 ,he never gained that next stage of spiritual emancipation and enrichment at which the sense of conflict is its own reward2 as when the soldier1 with 8his soul well-knit0 and every nerve schooled and chastened on the eve of a great battle1 feels a profound repose1 a diviner calm than that of the acclaimed victor4 8,the man who1 though his fights be all defeats1 still fights0--as ,coventry ,patmore sang while ,rossetti was yet young--has verily seen 8the beginnings of peace40 ,it was at ,bognor1 too1 that he began work upon the most ambitious of all his great symbolic figures1 the 8,venus ,astarte10 or 8,astarte ,syriaca10 in which he strove--vainly perhaps1 but with a superb effort towards a superhuman task--to combine and express all the mystic sensuousness and occult magic of ,orientalism with the clear and scientific wisdom of the ,western world4 ,the ,syrian ,venus stands 8between the sun and moon a mystery10 attended by winged and torch-bearing choristers2 eloquent of the painter's long and last struggle to reconcile sense1 emotion1 and intellect in the highest consummation of pictorial art4 ,in the following summer 7#ahgf7 ,rossetti paid a pleasant visit1 at the invitation of ,lord and ,lady ,mount ,temple1 to their house at ,broadlands1 in ,hampshire1 where he made some progress with the best version of 8,the ,blessed ,damozel40 ,the predella to this work1 in which the lover left on earth is seen waiting beside a river for the vision of the ,beloved1 was painted from the beechwoods of the neighbourhood4 ,in #ahgf ,rossetti went with ,madox ,brown1 ,mr4 ,george ,hake1 ,mr4 ,theodore ,watts1 and his mother and sister to ,herne ,bay4 ,ill health had now settled permanently upon him1 and painting became more difficult and intermittent1 yet his technical power remained for the most part singularly unimpaired4 ,in #ahgh he completed 8,a ,vision of ,fiametta10--an admirable and wholly new version of the subject from ,boccaccio which he had treated some years back4 ,fiametta is in the painter's thought an angel of immortality3 8,gloom-girt 'mid ,spring-flushed apple-growths she stands0 --his bright ,easter-maiden1 with the crimson bird on the bough beside her1 the symbol of warm1 full-blooded life1 as is the soft red robe she wears1--of life so rich and sweet as to yield the guarantee of victory2 the spirit that can defy death and be its own assurance of resurrection4 ,the apple-blossoms fall in scattered petals to the ground as she pushes the boughs apart with her lifted hand4 ,behind her is a stormy ,april sky1 but around her head there plays a light1 as of hope beyond the grave4 ,she is the covenant of eternal spring1 for she --8with re-assuring eyes most fair1 ,a presage and a promise stands2 as 'twere ,on ,death's dark storm the rainbow of the soul40 ,but now the time was nigh when 8,death's dark storm0 must break upon ,rossetti4 ,the last great and sane strength of his genius was spent upon poetry1--in the crowning of his romantic ballads with the masterpiece of their class1 8,the ,king's ,tragedy40 ,this was published1 in a volume entitled 8,ballads and ,sonnets10 in #ahha4 ,the previous year had seen the completion of the last important picture that ever came fully finished from his hand1--an oil version of the almost full-length figure replicated several times1 under the name of 8,the ,day-dream10 and consisting of the most beautiful and perfect of his portraits of ,mrs4 ,william ,morris4 ,of the laborious conscientiousness of ,rossetti's practice in painting it may here be said that it has been greatly under-estimated by those who only saw the less serious side of his complex and self-contradictory nature4 ,that 8the capacity for taking infinite pains0 developed with the genius which gave it scope is abundantly attested by those who witnessed not only his restless roving from one task to another1 but also the ungrudging concentration of toil which he bestowed in turns upon them all4 ,mr4 ,shields1 who for years was a constant companion in ,rossetti's studio1 says in his too-brief record of that intimacy3--8,one evening when the fine full-length figure1 holding an open book and honeysuckle1 called #8,the ,day-dream1' was nearly completed1 ,i found him standing far off from it in the dusky light and searching it critically4 #8,it seems to me1 that the lower limbs are too short3 what do you think8' ,an examination compelled me to endorse his fears4 ,it was enough4 ,condemnation to the effacement of half the picture was instantly passed4 ,long sprays of young sycamore1 rich with the ruddy buds of early spring1 crossed before the lady's green skirt4 ,that sacrificed1 it was not possible to save the foliage1 and the season was too far advanced for fresh reference to nature4 ,the first necessary step therefore was to copy these on to a clean canvas2 that done1 he determinately scraped out the large erring surface1 corrected the proportions of the figure1 and then calmly re-painted all1 striking lastly the sycamore boughs into their new places from the rescued studies40 ,an even more laborious re- painting1 says the same authority1 was effected in the final oil version of 8,dante's ,dream10 completed in #ahga4 ,the figure of one of the ladies attendant at the bedside of the dead ,beatrice failed to satisfy him in the disposition of her drapery4 ,at the last moment he set to work to make entirely new studies for the robe in question1 and almost wholly re-painted the figure that wore it4 ,in the autumn of #ahha1 which witnessed the publication of his second volume of original poetry1 ,rossetti went with his friend ,mr4 ,hall ,caine1 the eminent novelist1 to spend some weeks at a little farmhouse in the ,vale of ,st4 ,john1 near ,keswick1 ,cumberland4 ,the surrounding scenery was of a wildly beautiful kind1 well calculated to soothe and inspire the city-pent poets2 but ,rossetti was by this time too ill to find relief from nervous strain in the long walks which he had enjoyed at ,bognor4 ,he paced instead1 for hours together1 the quaint little sitting-room where1 night after night1 he would read aloud from the treasures of modern fiction4 ,of ,rossetti's acute critical faculty1 and his sound literary judgment alike in poetry and prose romance1 abundant testimony has been given by the many privileged to enjoy from year to year1 especially in the period of his prime1 the inestimable help and delight of his enthusiastic counsel and his frank1 outspoken1 but never ungenerous criticism4 ,such witness is fully endorsed by ,mr4 ,caine's records even of this last autumn of his life1 when1 through shattered health and failing hopes for his own future1 he retained in a great measure the mental vision and acumen of happier days1 as well as his own creative power in design and poetry4 ,rossetti never tired of these nightly discussions of the inexhaustible topics of literary art3 he loved to prolong them far into the morning hours2 and often1 as his friend has told us1 they saw the sunrise break over the great hills as they went at last to rest4 ,nor was the year without fruit in painting4 ,the pathetic picture of 8,la ,pia10 a new design in oils1 though with a title used for a sketch in #ahfg1 ranks high among his later performances4 ,the subject1 briefly broached in ,dante's 8,purgatorio10 deals with the imprisonment of the young wife of ,nello dell' ,pietra of ,siena in a fortress in the ,maremma1 in the midst of a noxious swamp4 ,rossetti was still at work1 too1 upon the great symbolic picture in which he was endeavouring to sum up all that he had implied in his maturer treatment of womanly beauty1--the mystic and solemn 8,venus ,astarte0 or 8,astarte ,syriaca0 7the ,syrian ,venus74 ,the 8,cassandra0 proposed by him somewhile previously was never far advanced1 but he had painted in #ahhj a somewhat inferior oil version of a subject which had been the favourite of his youth1 8,the ,salutation of ,beatrice40 ,one of the very few public triumphs which came to ,rossetti in his lifetime stands in the annals of #ahha4 ,his great picture1 8,dante's ,dream10 painted ten years earlier1 was purchased by the ,corporation of ,liverpool for #a1ejj1 and hung in the ,walker ,art ,gallery1 where it was at once hailed with general and almost unalloyed praise4 ,early in ,february1 #ahhb1 prostrated by an attack of a semi-paralytic character1 ,rossetti was removed to ,birchington-on-,sea1 near ,margate1 where his old friend1 ,mr4 ,john ,p4 ,seddon1 had generously placed a house known as ,west ,cliff ,bungalow at his disposal4 ,mr4 ,hall ,caine went with him1 and they were soon joined by the artist's mother1 sister1 and brother1 and visited frequently by ,mr4 ,watts1 and by the young poet ,mr4 ,william ,sharp1 ,mr4 ,shields1 and ,mr4 ,leyland1 who brought with him ,rossetti's long-trusted medical adviser1 ,dr4 ,john ,marshall1 to add his counsels to the unremitting care of the local physician1 ,dr4 ,harris4 ,even within sight of the fast-approaching end1 his earnest spirit did not falter in its aspirations1 nor was the grasp of the busy hand upon its loved work relaxed altogether4 ,he now executed a beautiful little oil sketch of a subject which he had attempted many years before--8,joan of ,arc ,kissing the ,sword of ,deliverance20 a striking and pathetic allegory of his own soul's attitude1 as he stood ready to greet with glad and fearless reverence the long-impending sword of the last ,deliverer4 ,he was one of those to whom1 as ,george ,eliot once said1 early death takes the aspect of salvation4 ,at ,birchington he reverted also to his picture of ten years back1 8,proserpine40 ,his last poetry was written less than a week before his death1 in two sonnets illustrative of his yet unfinished picture1 8,the ,question10 or 8,the ,sphinx10 in which the figures of ,youth1 ,manhood1 and ,age appear before the ,mother of ,mystery4 ,early in youth ,rossetti had made a resolution that no day should pass without some piece of work1 however imperfect1 issuing from his hands1 and amid much pain and weakness1 sorrow and discouragement1 he kept that resolution almost till his dying day4 ,on ,good ,friday1 the #gth of ,april1 he became rapidly worse1 but remained cheerful and composed4 ,on ,easter ,day the shadow of death hung over the little household4 ,in the evening the group of watchers gathered with increasing apprehension round the bed4 8,i think ,i shall die to-night10 said ,rossetti quietly1 some hours before the end4 ,soon after nine o'clock a momentary struggle gave warning of the approaching rest4 ,his mother1 sister1 and brother1 ,mr4 ,theodore ,watts1 ,mr4 ,shields1 ,mr4 ,hall ,caine1 ,dr4 ,harris and the nurse were with him1 when1 twenty minutes later1 he passed away1 meeting the ,deliverer in perfect calm2 seeing1 as he himself expressed it1 8on ,death's dark storm the rainbow of the soul40 ,on ,easter ,monday ,mr4 ,shields1 at the request of the bereaved family1 made a careful and accurate pencil drawing of the head of his late friend as he lay ready for the last sad rites4 ,a plaster cast of the head1 by ,brucciani1 was also made1 but was not considered satisfactory4 ,it was decided that the funeral should take place at ,birchington2 and there1 in the quiet little graveyard on the cliffs1 ,rossetti was laid to rest4 ,mr4 ,william ,sharp and ,philip ,bourke ,marston 7who died five years later7 were among the mourners1 besides those already gathered in the house of grief4 ,the quiet hamlet of ,birchington-on-,sea is now a well-loved place of pilgrimage4 ,the quaint1 un-,english-looking house in which the poet- painter died is honoured as 8,rossetti ,bungalow40 ,in the old1 shingle- towered1 ivy-grown church1 a stained-glass memorial window1 his mother's gift1 shows1 in the one light1 his own design1 8,the ,passover in the ,holy ,family10 and1 in the other1 ,christ giving sight to a blind minstrel1--the work of his old friend1 ,mr4 ,shields4 ,in the churchyard1 opposite the south-west porch1 the old verger shows1 with touching pride and enthusiasm1 a beautiful ,runic cross1 on the face of which is this inscription3 ,,here ,,sleeps ,,gabriel ,,charles ,,dante ,,rossetti1 ,,honoured ,,under ,,the ,,name ,,of ,,dante ,,gabriel ,,rossetti1 ,,among ,,painters ,,as ,a ,,painter1 ,,and ,,among ,,poets ,,as ,a ,,poet4 ,,born ,,in ,,london1 ,,of ,,parentage ,,mainly ,,italian1 #ab ,,may1 #ahbh4 ,,died ,,at ,,birchington1 #i ,,april1 #ahhb4 ,and at the back the following3 ,,this ,,cruciform ,,monument1 ,,bespoken ,,by ,,dante ,,rossetti',s ,,mother1 ,,was ,,designed ,,by ,,his ,,lifelong ,,friend1 ,,ford ,,madox ,,brown1 ,,executed ,,by ,j4 ,h4 ,,patteson1 ,and erected by his brother ,william and sister ,christina ,rossetti4 ,another interesting memorial has since been established in the form of a drinking fountain1 designed by ,mr4 ,seddon1 with a bronze bust modelled by ,mr4 ,madox ,brown1 erected by subscription in #ahhg in front of the old house1 #af1 ,cheyne ,walk1 ,chelsea1 which was ,rossetti's home for twenty years4 ,an estimate of the disposition and character of such a man as ,rossetti will not be lightly attempted by those who can only honour his memory from afar2 having never added to the deep enjoyment of his art the privilege of personal intercourse with the artist4 ,his tender and passionate affection1 his chivalrous loyalty1 his gracious bonhomie1 his winning dignity1 are matters so familiar to all who really knew him1 as to render eulogy alike superfluous and impertinent4 ,of the other side of that magnetic personality1--of his hyper-sensitive pride1 his morbid isolation of his suffering self from those healthy breezes of broad intellectual life which it is so easy to prescribe1 so bitterly hard for a nature such as his to stand against1--of these things it may be said with all sympathy and reverence that they were the price of his greatness4 ,there are some temperaments so finely organized1 so delicately strung1 that even joy is painful to them4 ,they cannot lose in the sense of delight the consciousness of what that delight has cost them4 ,they perceive so acutely the realities1 the conditions1 of life1 that an hour of rapture makes them more quick to the pain behind and before4 ,such was ,shelley1 such were ,keats and ,byron2 such was ,dante ,gabriel ,rossetti4 ,it is the curse of the artistic temperament3 it is the blessing of ,art4 8,there are some of us10 said ,shelley1 8who have loved an ,antigone before we visited this earth1 and must pursue through life that unregainable ideal40 8,i think10 he added1 in words that might well be applied to ,rossetti1 8one is always in love with something or other2 the error consists in seeking in a mortal image the likeness of what is1 perhaps1 eternal40 ,in other words1 ,rossetti was an idealist1 and for the idealist there is no primrose path to heaven4 ,his soul was too open to the ideal to be proof against the actual4 ,his whole nature was like an olian harp1 responsive through the whole gamut of thought and sense to every breath of circumstance or destiny that played about the world around it4 ,for him there was no life without emotion4 ,he craved sensation1 as one craves a narcotic1 to destroy its own results4 ,ennui was his bane4 ,nothing in his history is more pathetic than his need1 in later years1 of the perpetual ministry of close friends4 ,the delicate instrument that could never be silent was hard to keep in tune4 ,it demanded a firm and tender hand laid upon all those quivering strings of being to merge the discords into some sort of harmony1 even if it were always in a minor key4 ,such a hand he found more than once among those that knew and loved him1 but he found it supremely in the friendship of ,mr4 ,theodore ,watts1 to whom his last poems were dedicated4 ,,chapter ,,vi4 ,,treatment ,,of ,,religious ,,subjects4 ,the ,re-birth of ,religious ,art--8,god1 ,immortality1 ,duty0--,the ,pre- ,raphaelites and the ,reconstruction of ,christianity--,the ,halo in ,painting--,the ,responsibility of ,womanhood--,the 8,girlhood of ,mary ,virgin0 and 8,ecce ,ancilla ,domini0--,the ,problem of ,suffering--8,christ in the ,house of ,his ,parents10 8,the ,passover in the ,holy ,family10 8,the ,shadow of ,death10 8,the ,scapegoat0--,hunt's ,symbolism--8,the ,light of the ,world0--,rossetti's ,symbolism--8,mary ,magdalene at the ,door10 and 8,mary in the ,house of ,john0--,the ,idea of ,victory ,through ,suffering-- 8,bethlehem ,gate0--8,the ,triumph of the ,innocents0--,the ,spirit of ,inquiry--8,christ in the ,temple0--,the ,atonement--8,the ,infant ,christ ,adored0--,comparison with ,madox ,brown and ,burne-,jones--8,the ,entombment0--8,the ,tree of ,life40 8,god--,immortality--,duty20 such were the weighty words chosen by one of the greatest women of our century as the text of a now historic conversation in the shadow of ,st4 ,john's ,college1 ,cambridge4 ,the student to whom she spoke has told us with what a tender solemnity she approached the great postulations which those words conveyed1 and challenged them in her inflexible judgment one by one2--to her1 how inconceivable the first1 how unbelievable the second1 but yet how imperative and irresistible the third4 ,the attitude of ,george ,eliot1 even in the phase of intellectual scepticism from which she then spoke1 was deeply significant of that fundamental change in the constitution of religion1 that entire transference of ,christian or non-,christian 8evidences10 from the intellectual to the moral sphere1 from the argument to the instinct1 which is now largely accepted as the supreme result of modern thought in ,europe4 ,for the repudiation of prior conceptions of 8,god0 and 8,immortality10 so far from precluding a reconstructive faith1 rather prepared the way for it2 making the belief in unseen goodness a deduction from instead of a premise to the recognition of visible goodness in the present world1 and leaving the more scope for that growing reverence for the physical nature of man which1--having its origins in ,paganism and its highest sanction in the ,gospel of ,galilee1 and revealing itself in a passionate exaltation of bodily beauty as a symbol of the divine1 a resolute acceptance of the laws of nature and destiny1 and a strenuous blending of resignation to those laws with conquest of them by spiritual powers1--has inspired the great humanitarian movement of to-day1 wherein the faith of the future finds the witness and the justification of its ideal4 ,to what degree1 then1 has the ,pre-,raphaelite movement in ,english art affected1 or reflected1 that momentous revolution8 ,the pictures of ,rossetti1 ,millais1 and ,holman ,hunt have been by turns exalted and condemned by the apologists of contending theological schools1 and the painters stigmatized1 now as followers of ,tractarianism and instruments of ,popery1 now as leaders of the coarsest rationalism in sacred art1 now as apostles of a sensual neo-,paganism brought over from the ,renaissance1 and credited to hold mystic and sceptic in equal defiance4 ,one clerical critic1 indeed1 in #aheg1 sought in an ineffectual volume to prove the essential atheism of all ,pre-,raphaelite work4 ,his protest was but typical of that still extant species of mind to which the worship of the body implies the profanation of the soul4 ,it remains to be decided whether such paintings touched the deepest religious principles which underlie all change of creed or ritual1 and if so1 in what way the art of the ,pre-,raphaelites has joined or swayed the general current of humanitarian feeling which is slowly absorbing all forms of religion into a universal spirit and will4 ,these questions bring us to the great group of pictures in which ,english artists for the first time have aspired to deal in all simplicity and earnestness with the bases and principles of the ,christian religion4 ,it should not be difficult to discern the dominant idea1 the moral keynote1 so to speak1 of the highest utterances of art in an age of such religious revolution as has been suggested by the proposition of ,george ,eliot4 ,the philosophy of 8,duty10 presented by her in its sternest aspect1 but brought more into line with the common heritage of religious thought by ,browning1 ,tennyson1 ,f4,d4 ,maurice1 and other contemporaries of the ,pre-,raphaelite band1 has in fact led in art1 as it has led in religion1 directly1 if unconsciously1 to that reverent re-discovery of 8,god10 that transfiguration of the ideal of 8,immortality10 which the revival of the spirit of romance has made possible to modern ,england4 ,it has been said that 8the romantic temper is the essentially ,christian element in art40#g ,let us rather say that it is the medium through which ,christianity itself has been renewed and quickened into a richer and fuller life4 ,the romantic temper1 in ,pre-,raphaelite art1 takes hold of the eternal verities of the ,christian faith1 and humanizes its whole cycle of history and legend in the atmosphere of the real and present world4 ,it ignores any sort of dividing line between sacred tragedy and the great problems of modern time4 ,it abjures for ever the 8glass-case reverence0 of relic-worship1 the superstition which isolates ,christian history as a record of exceptional events1 instead of an interpretation of universal experiences4 ,ruskin justly says that 8imagination will find its holiest work in the lighting-up of the ,gospels20 but the illumination must have a reconstructive as well as an analytic consequence2 must be1 as the late ,peter ,walker ,nicholson expresses it in his fine critique on ,rossetti1#h instinctively synthetic--which is the quality of genius3 and all true art is synthetic in its essence and its end4 ,the tendency of modern religious science to discredit the exceptional and the unique1 and set the basis of morals in universal and familiar things1--in other words to deduce 8,god0 and 8,immortality0 from the instinct of 8,duty0 and not 8,duty0 from the arguments for 8,immortality0 and 8,god10--finds its correlative in the tendency of romantic art to subject the remote specialities of classicism to the test of known conditions and actual character4 ,therefore the four gospels1 to the ,pre-,raphaelite painters1 do not stand alone as 8religious0 history1 distinct from the world-wide record of human aspiration and struggle from age to age4 ,they merely afford the supreme examples of man's apprehension of 8,god1 ,immortality1 ,duty10 and of his capability of heroic labour and self-sacrifice in the pursuit of an ideal4 ,the ,pre-,raphaelites draw their first principle of religion from the beauty and glory of the natural world1 and the intrinsic dignity and sacredness of human life4 ,their ,christ is re-incarnate in the noblest manhood of all time2 their ,virgin ,mary lives again in every pure girl that wakes to the solemn charm1 the mysterious power and responsibility of womanhood4 ,in humanity itself1 with all its possibilities1 in its triumphs and in its degradations1 its labours and its sufferings1 they re-discover 8,god10--an 8unknown ,god10 it may be2 8inconceivable10 if we will2 but evident in the quickened conscience of a growing world1 and in the invincible instincts of human pity and love4 ,millais sees a young ,christ in the delicate boy with the wounded hand in the dreary and comfortless carpenter's shop4 ,hunt sees a crucified ,christ in the tired workman1 over-tasked and despairing amid the calm sunlight of eventide4 ,rossetti sees a risen ,christ in the noble poet whose great love could conquer death and enter upon the ,new ,life in the present hour4 ,the true ,pre-,raphaelitism does not take the halo from the head of the ,christ of history2 but it puts the halo on the head of every suffering child1 of every faithful man and woman since the world began4 ,it is not that the historic ,christ is less divine2 but that all humanity is diviner because ,he lived and died4 ,in such a spirit does ,rossetti conceive 8,the ,girlhood of ,mary ,virgin10-- not as a miraculous but an exquisitely natural thing2 miraculous1 at least1 in ,walt ,whitman's sense of the word1--the sense in which all beauty and all goodness are miracles to man4 ,he shows us the up-growing of a simple country girl1 in a home full of the sweetness of family love2 remote and quiet1 yet with no artificial superiority or isolation from the average world4 ,the maiden in the picture1 with an innocent austerity of face1 sits at an embroidery-frame by her mother's side4 ,in front of her is a growing lily1 whose white blossoms1 the symbol of her purity1 she is copying with her needle on the cloth of red1 beneath ,st4 ,anna's watchful eye4 ,the flower-pot rests on a pile of books1 inscribed with the names of the choicest virtues1 uppermost of which is ,charity4 ,near to these lie a seven-thorned briar and a seven-leaved palm-branch1 with a scroll inscribed 8,tot dolores tot gaudia10 typical of 8her great sorrow and her great reward40 ,the lily is tended by a beautiful child- angel1 the guardian both of the flower and the girl who is herself1 in ,rossetti's words1 8,an angel-watered lily1 that near ,god ,grows and is quiet40 ,around the balcony trails a vine1 which ,st4 ,joiachim is pruning above2 significant of the ,true ,vine which must hereafter suffer 8the chastisement of our peace40 ,the dove that broods among its branches promises the ,comforter that is to come4 ,the realism of the picture is a realism of the medival kind1 that takes possession of1 instead of ignoring1 the spiritual world1 and overleaps the boundaries of visible things2 depicting the invisible with the daring confidence of imaginative faith4 ,the child-angel with her crimson pinions is as substantial on the canvas as the soberly-clad virgin at her symbolic task4 ,in the companion-picture1 8,ecce ,ancilla ,domini0 78,behold the handmaid of the ,lord607 ,rossetti repeats and develops much of the same symbolism in the accessories of the painting1 but the universal meaning of the ,virgin's call is far more clearly brought out4 ,the design differs from all familiar versions of the ,annunciation in that the message is delivered to ,mary as she wakes out of sleep1 and that she is depicted1 not among beautiful and well-ordered surroundings1 but in a poor and bare chamber1 rising1 half-awake1 in a humble pallet-bed1 and sitting awed before the angel whose presence1 perhaps1 is but the visualized memory of her dream4 ,the rapt stillness of her look recalls the pregnant line in which ,byron speaks of a troubled waking1--8to know the sense of pain without the cause40 ,in ,mary's mind there should rather be a sense of joy without the cause2 but even in her joy there lies a mystery1 a burden of responsibility and foreboded sorrow1 that makes it heavy to bear4 ,it is as if some simple girl1 waking to the golden glories of a summer morn1 should wake at the same time to the thought of the world's pain1 and realize1 in a sudden exaltation of pity and love1 that somehow1 by whatever path of grief and loss1 her purity1 her goodness1 must help humanity and bless the race to be4 ,the angel at her side is a girl-child no longer1 but a youth1 full of strength and graciousness1 as if to suggest that the sanctities of manhood are now to be revealed to the maid4 ,in his hand the radiant ,gabriel holds the full-grown and gathered lily1 whose image is now completed on the embroidered cloth1 which hangs near the bed4 ,the dove1 the symbol of the ,holy ,spirit1 flies in at the window1 and the light is soft and warm from the sun-bathed landscape without4 ,once again did ,rossetti attempt the subject of 8,the ,annunciation10 but only in a water-colour sketch1 which found a place1 however1 in the small but choice collection in the ,burlington ,club4 ,here also the lily affords the symbolic keynote of the design1--the ,virgin is seen bathing among the water-lilies in a stream2 but the singularly fine conception of the angel's salutation gives a special value and interest to the work4 ,the figure that appears before her on the bank assumes for the moment the aspect of a cross2 being so enfolded with his golden wings that the ,virgin sees not only the glory of her visitant but the dire portent of the message which he brings4 8,the ,annunciation0 of ,mr4 ,arthur ,hughes is more conventional in spirit1 with its veiled ,virgin and its stiffly self-conscious ,gabriel1 and lacks the note of prescience which gives solemnity to ,rossetti's designs4 ,mr4 ,burne-,jones1 on the other hand1 gives us a more mature and stately maid4 ,his ,mary1 nobly simple though she is1 seems better prepared for the sacred honour of her destiny1 and does not touch us so deeply as the shrinking girl in 8,ecce ,ancilla ,domini10 or even as the poor beggar-maiden 7for so she appears7 in ,mr4 ,hughes's 8,nativity10 bending timid and reverent on her knees in the straw before the ,holy ,child4 ,but the note of prescience1 as we have seen1--the prophetic symbolism which brings to mind in every incident of the ,saviour's life the whole scheme of sacrifice and redemption1 dominates all the greatest ,pre- ,raphaelite work4 ,the suggestions of the inevitable ,cross recur in ,rossetti's early picture1 8,the ,passover in the ,holy ,family10 in ,millais's 8,christ in the ,house of ,his ,parents10 and in ,holman ,hunt's 8,shadow of ,death10 with a force and urgency that points at once to the universal significance of the history4 8,the ,passover in the ,holy ,family0 shows us the boy ,christ carrying a bowl filled with the blood of the newly-slain ,paschal lamb1 and gazing at it with a mysterious foreboding in his eyes4 ,in the dim background ,st4 ,joseph and ,st4 ,anna 7or1 according to ,mr4 ,william ,rossetti1 and as seems more probable1 ,st4 ,elizabeth71 are seen kindling a fire for the ritual4 ,mary is gathering bitter herbs1 and ,zacharias is sprinkling the door-posts and lintel with the lamb's blood4 ,the youthful ,john ,baptist is kneeling at the feet of ,christ1 binding ,his shoe4 ,rossetti1 however1 does not attempt quite so bold a translation of the ,biblical narrative into modern form as does ,millais when1 depicting 8,christ in the ,house of ,his ,parents10 he sets the poor and mean-looking child in the midst of almost wholly ,english surroundings1 in a carpenter's workshop1 looking out upon a landscape of thoroughly ,english meadow-land2--a literalism of method since adopted with more daring fidelity to local colour in their respective fields by such later realists as ,fritz von ,uhde and ,vassili ,verestchagin1 and others of the ,german and neo-,french schools1 but never pursued to the same length in any later experiment from the studios of the ,pre-,raphaelite ,brotherhood4 ,critics probably will long be divided as to the legitimacy of such a process1 and its success must be judged largely by the intention of the painter1--whether he seeks merely to present an historical incident with vividness and force1 and employs familiar scenery to emphasize the hard reality of his narrative1 and whether he rather aspires to interpret the universal truth beneath the incident1 and to illustrate its bearing upon present life2 in other words1 whether he desires to impress us 7for example7 with the reality of the sufferings of ,christ1 or with the problem of human suffering in all ages1 of which the sacred story is at once the type and the key4 ,it can scarcely be argued that the latter object does not come within the scope of art4 ,the point at issue1 however1 seems to be that the sense of anachronism aroused by the presentation of great historical or legendary figures in present-day garb1 amid the surroundings of contemporary life1 is apt to endanger the solemnity of the theme1 and to some extent defeat the object of the painter1--in which case it may be urged that the failure is quite as likely to lie upon the spectator's side4 ,but the literalism of ,millais's picture is eclipsed by the exhaustive symbolism which he uses in common with his colleagues of the ,brotherhood1 though never carrying it into the elaborate detail cultivated by ,mr4 ,holman ,hunt4 ,the 8house0 of ,christ's ,parents is a wooden shed1 strewn with shavings and hung with tools4 ,the young ,christ has torn his hand on a nail1 and ,st4 ,joseph1 turning from his bench1 holds up the wounded palm1 which ,mary hastens to bind with a linen cloth4 ,john the ,baptist brings water to bathe the hurt before she covers it1 and the elder woman bends forward to remove the tools with which the boy1 perhaps1 has carelessly played4 ,the nail-mark in the palm is an obvious presage of the coming ,cross4 ,the rough planks and the half-woven basket convey the idea of unfinished work2 and on a ladder overhead broods the ever-present dove4 ,the picture is inscribed from the verse in ,zechariah1--8,and one shall say unto him1 #8,what are these wounds in thine hands8' ,then shall he answer1 #8,those with which ,i was wounded in the house of my friends4'0 ,to recover the actual conditions of the early life of ,christ--to reproduce the aspect of a ,nazarene cottage eighteen centuries ago--and yet to charge the historic figure with a vitality and emotion that brings it home with irresistible significance to the heart of the spectator of to-day1 is perhaps a higher triumph of art than could be achieved by ,millais's neo-realistic method4 ,rare as is success in this dual effort--the union of archological accuracy with profound insight into the eternal meanings of the ancient tragedy--it has been attained beyond question by ,holman ,hunt in his greatest picture1 8,the ,shadow of ,death40 ,sojourning for four years at ,nazareth and ,bethlehem 7the latter on account of the alleged resemblance of its people to the ancient ,house of ,david71 the painter equipped himself with knowledge of every detail of domestic life1 furniture1 custom1 and dress that could heighten the literal truthfulness of his work4 ,to that scientific fidelity he added the elaborate symbolism of which he made a studious art1 and through that symbolism he poured a wealth of imagination1 a dignity of thought and an intensity of feeling which steeped the subject in a moral glow hitherto unknown to ,english painting4 ,the scene is laid at sunset in the carpenter's shop4 ,the ,christ1 whose face and form1 now grown to manhood1 speak utter weariness of body and soul1 seems to stand there for all humanity1 confronting the whole problem of labour and suffering and death4 ,there is something more than physical exhaustion1 though that is paramount1 in the drooping figure of the tired workman as ,he lifts ,his arms from the tools and stretches them out in the evening sunlight1 all unconscious that as ,he does so1 the slant rays cast ,his shadow1 in the semblance of a crucifix1 upon the cottage wall behind1 where a wooden tool-rack forms as it were the arms of the cross on which the shadow of ,his arms is cast2 and near it a little window1 open to the east1 makes an aureole of light around ,his head4 ,his mother1 kneeling on the floor1 examining the casket in which she keeps the long-treasured gifts of the ,magi--gold1 and frankincense1 and myrrh1 glances up and sees the terrible image on the wall4 ,it is the cross of a daily crucifixion1 rather than of the final death1 that weighs upon the soul of ,christ2--the crucifixion of unhonoured labour in obscurity2 the hard1 despised routine of toil endured by the uncomplaining workers of all time4 ,he knows both the dignity of labour and its shame2--the dignity1 that is1 of all honest1 healthy1 and profitable toil2 the shame of that industrial slavery which in any land can make a man too weary to enjoy the sunset glories or to revel in the calm delights of eventide4 ,in turning to ,hunt's earlier picture1 8,the ,scapegoat10 we pass from the problem of the slavery of labour to the deeper question of vicarious sacrifice4 ,the solitary figure of the dumb and helpless animal1 dying in the utter desolation of the wilderness1 the unconscious and involuntary victim of human sin1 speaks more eloquently than any words of the reality and pathos of the suffering of innocence for guilt4 ,seldom if ever has the problem been so directly urged upon us in pictorial art1-- ,can the law of vicarious sacrifice be reconciled with our highest ideals of moral justice8 ,can a beneficent and omnipotent ,god permit one innocent being1 without choice or knowledge1 to pay another's penalty8 ,or1 on the other hand1 can we formulate any other method by which humanity could be taught its own solemn power1 and its absolute community and interdependence of soul with soul8 ,the painter's business is to state that problem1 not to solve it2 and this ,hunt does with the utmost simplicity1 sincerity1 and earnestness4 ,pitching his tent in the most inhospitable region on the shores of the ,dead ,sea1 the artist painted the actual landscape upon which the ancient victim was cast adrift1 to perish slowly in the desert without the camp2 and from that strange1 wild studio his picture came full-charged with the loneliness and terror of the scene1 and the momentous meaning of the scapegoat's sacrifice4 8,the ,light of the ,world10 frequently regarded as ,holman ,hunt's greatest work1 though more mystical and appealing less directly to common sentiment than 8,the ,shadow of ,death10 is purely symbolic in design and character2 and indeed may be taken to represent the high-water mark of abstract symbolism1 as distinct from ,biblical history1 in the paintings of the ,pre-,raphaelite ,brotherhood4 ,the circumstances of its execution1 partly at ,oxford1 and partly in his studio at ,chelsea by moonlight1 have already been referred to4 ,the picture tells no story2 deals with no incident or condition of the human life of ,christ1 but presents the ideal figure in the threefold aspect of prophet1 priest1 and king4 ,the ,saviour appears in the guise of a pilgrim1 carrying a lantern1 and knocking in the night at a fast-closed door4 ,he wears the white robe of inspiration1 typical of prophecy2 the jewelled robe and breastplate of a priest2 and a crown of gold interwoven with one of thorns4 ,the legend from ,revelation1 iii4 #bj1 gives the keynote of the work3 8,behold ,i stand at the door and knock4 ,if any man hear my voice and open the door1 ,i will come in to him1 and will sup with him1 and he with ,me40 ,the fast- barred door1 with its rusty nails and bolts overgrown with ivy1 and its threshold blocked up with brambles and weeds1 is the door of the human soul4 ,the light from the lantern in ,christ's hand is the light of conscience 7according to ,mr4 ,ruskin's well-known description of the picture71 and the light which suffuses the head of the ,saviour1 issuing from the crown of thorns1 is the hope of salvation4 ,the lamp-light rests on the doorway and the weeds1 and on a fallen apple which gives the suggestion of hereditary sin4 ,the thorns in the crown are now bearing fresh leaves1 8for the healing of the nations40 ,it has been charged against many ,pre-,raphaelite paintings that their elaborate symbolism1 and the highly subjective development of the designs1 require not merely titles and texts1 but footnotes also1 for their explanation4 ,in the pictures of ,holman ,hunt especially1 this charge may have some weight2 but it may be fairly met by the consideration of the close and deep thought1 the prolonged spiritual fervour--unexampled since the ,italian ,pre-,raphaelites--in which each masterpiece is steeped1 and which surely brings a claim upon such intelligent study as would enable all but those wholly ignorant of ,christian symbology to interpret the details for themselves4 ,rossetti said of one of ,hunt's pictures that 8the solemn human soul seems to vibrate through it like a bell in a forest40 ,that sound1 once caught1 yields the keynote to the pictorial scheme1 and attunes all the latent music to its perfect end4 ,rossetti1 however1 in no case employed the symbolic-figure method1 so triumphantly used in 8,the ,light of the ,world10 for his ,biblical subjects2 but reserved it for the realm of romantic allegory and classic myth4 ,his illustration of the eternal truths of penitence and aspiration1 of 8the awakening conscience0 and the resurrection of the soul1 is given us in his beautiful drawing of 8,mary ,magdalene at the door of ,simon the ,pharisee40 ,the scene is laid amid the revelry of a village street at a time of festival4 ,mary1 passing with a throng of gay companions1 sees1 through the window of a house1 the face of ,christ2 and with a sudden impulse leaves the procession and tears the flowers passionately from her hair1 seeking to enter where ,he sits2 the while her lover1 following1 strives to dissuade her1 and to lead her back to the mirthful company4 ,the appeal of passion and the answer of the repentant woman1 beautiful in her mingled shame and triumph1 are best recounted in ,rossetti's own words1 from the most successful of his sonnets on his own designs3 8,why wilt thou cast the roses from thine hair8 ,nay1 be thou all a rose1--wreath1 lips1 and cheek4 ,nay1 not this house1--that banquet-house we seek2 ,see how they kiss and enter2 come thou there4 ,this delicate day of love we too will share ,till at our ear love's whispering night shall speak4 ,what1 sweet one1--hold'st thou still the foolish freak8 ,nay1 when ,i kiss thy feet they'll leave the stair40 8,oh loose me6 ,seest thou not my ,bridegroom's face ,that draws me to ,him8 ,for ,his feet my kiss1 ,my hair1 my tears1 ,he craves to-day3--and oh6 ,what words can tell what other day and place ,shall see me clasp those blood-stained feet of ,his8 ,he needs me1 calls me1 loves me1 let me go60 8,,head ,,of ,,christ40 ,finished study for 8,mary ,magdalene40 ,by permission of ,mr4 ,moncure ,d4 ,conway4 ,illustration ,the face of the ,magdalene has been said to present ,rossetti's ideal of spiritual beauty1 in contrast with the physical beauty of 8,lilith0 and the intellectual beauty of 8,sibylla ,palmifera20 but as ,rossetti himself afterwards applied the title of 8,soul's ,beauty0 to 8,sibylla ,palmifera10 the distinction can hardly be pursued very far4 ,the head of ,christ 7for which ,mr4 ,burne-,jones is said to have sat as a model7 is of a more peculiar interest and value2 being the only serious attempt at the portrayal of the central figure in ,christian art which remains to us from ,rossetti's hand4 ,some highly-finished studies were made by him for this head1 from one of which the present illustration is taken4 ,rossetti's ,christ differs markedly in conception from that of ,holman ,hunt4 ,the ,christ of the older painter is pre-eminently the 8,man of ,sorrows10 the martyr whose whole life was a crucifixion4 ,rossetti shows us rather the ,galilean dreamer1 the peasant poet1 the gentle idealist whom women and children loved4 ,the realism of suffering1 though delicately suggested by the slightly-drawn brow1 the quiet tension of the features1 and the bright1 glowing depths of the eye1 is here in abeyance4 ,christ is for the time an honoured guest1 receiving the hospitality of the ,pharisee with a gracious self-possession and an exquisite simplicity of mien4 ,the sole suggestion1 in the surrounding objects1 of the tragedy that is to come1 is given in the vine that trails on the walls of the house1 symbolic of the great ,sacrifice4 ,the shadow of the ,cross--no longer cast into the future1 but abiding on the mourners after the death of ,christ--is figured by a device of singular beauty in ,rossetti's sketch of 8,mary in the ,house of ,john40 ,in a small drawing of 8,the ,crucifixion0 he had depicted ,st4 ,john leading the ,madonna from the foot of ,calvary4 ,now he shows us the new home1 so strangely ignored by painters of the sacred tale1 wherein the ,mother and the adopted son are together at eventide4 ,through the window is seen a distant view of ,jerusalem1 and in the uncertain light the window-bars assume the form of a cross1 which thus appears to rest upon the ,holy ,city1 and to stand between that quiet household and the outer world4 ,st4 ,john has been writing a portion of his ,gospel1 and pauses to strike a light1 with which the ,mother of ,jesus kindles a lamp1 hanging at the intersection of the bars2 so that the light shines from the centre-point of the ,cross1 where the ,head of ,christ should be4 ,this delicate emblem gives the touch of hope1 the promise of glory through sacrifice1 which lightens the darkness of the hour4 ,so fine a use of simple imagery1 so perfect an adjustment of the hope to the penalty1 admirably illustrates the highest triumph of ,pre-,raphaelite art1--the reconciliation of the 8crucifixion principle10 the essentially ,catholic element in religion1 with the 8resurrection principle10 peculiar to ,protestantism4 ,mr4 ,forsyth1 whose essays on the ,pre-,raphaelites have already been quoted1 makes the suggestive remark1 that 8,in ,hunt's technique shadow always means colour as well as darkness3 to see colour in shadow is the last triumph of a great painter10 and adds that 8,rossetti's colour is not merely luminous matter2 it is transfigured matter40 ,this conception of the dual truth of ,christianity--the necessity of suffering and the assurance of victory--is consistently presented both by ,rossetti and ,hunt2 and it is not merely victory over suffering1 as ,protestantism insists on1 which they teach2 but rather victory through suffering2 which is the fusion of ,catholic ethics with ,protestant faith4 ,and it is remarkable that the ,pre-,raphaelites find as much inspiration for the thought of victory through suffering in the incidents of ,christ's childhood as in the story of ,his martyrdom4 ,rossetti1 in his early picture of 8,bethlehem ,gate10 in which the ,holy ,family are seen in flight from the massacre of the ,innocents1 depicts at the side of the ,virgin ,mother an angel bearing a palm-branch1--the symbol of deliverance and reward4 ,holman ,hunt begins the ,resurrection with 8,the ,triumph of the ,innocents10 applies1 that is1 the principle of ,immortality to universal life2 and by the ruddy1 healthy faces of his angel-children watching from ,heaven over the child-,christ1 he insists1 as ,rossetti insisted in 8,the ,blessed ,damozel10 that the unknown world must be something intimately related to the one we know1 and that immortal life must be something more than the continuance of spiritual being in an immaterial sphere1--must1 in short1 afford real and eternal activities beyond the grave4 ,this recognition of the relation of sacrifice to victory leads the painters beyond the reconciliation of the individual man with ,god to the reconciliation of the social man with man4 ,something of this idea of 8peace on earth0 is suggested by ,rossetti's picture1 8,the ,infant ,christ ,adored by a ,shepherd and a ,king10 which now forms a triptych in ,llandaff ,cathedral1--the only picture directly from his hand which occupies a permanent position in an ,english church4 ,in the left compartment is seen the young ,david as a shepherd before ,goliath2 in the right1 the psalmist is depicted in old age1 crowned as a king before ,god4 ,in the centre1 the ,infant ,christ appears as the mediator between the high and the lowly1 the rich and the poor2 the messenger of the 8at-one-ment0 of all ranks of men1 united in a common worship of the ,divine ,child1 and a common love of that ,humanity of which ,he is the type4 ,a similar interpretation of the childhood of ,jesus1 as typical of the growth of all humanity1 may fairly be drawn from ,holman ,hunt's picture of 8,christ in the ,temple10--a work now thoroughly familiar to ,english eyes1 and perhaps the most popular because the least mystical of his masterpieces4 ,the bright1 bold1 ingenuous face and figure of the boy1 confronting with his eager questions the venerable ,rabbis of the congregation1 seems instinct with the life of the present age1 charged with the very essence of the spirit of inquiry--of sceptical inquiry even--before which the apologists of tradition and legalism are dumfounded1 and through which1 from the dogma of the old world1 is wrested the faith of the new4 ,it would be impracticable here to follow in detail the influence of the ,pre-,raphaelites upon the religious paintings of their contemporaries and successors1 or to estimate the exact relation of their work to that of their nearest precursor1 ,madox ,brown4 ,but a single example from the last-named artist1 and another from the youngest of the ,pre-,raphaelite group1 but never numbered with the ,brotherhood--,mr4 ,burne-,jones--may serve to illustrate still further the great religious principles of which these painters steadfastly took hold4 8,the ,entombment0 remains among the finest works of ,madox ,brown1 and embodies1 in its simple austerity1 its direct pathos1 a spiritual fervour akin to the highest inspirations of ,holman ,hunt4 ,the dignity of the human body1 the solemnity and awfulness of physical death1 the tender charm of child life and child innocence1 the mystery of immortality1 and the apprehension of a 8risen0 life1--all these things are brought within the range of thought opened up by that sombre and majestic design4 ,seldom in modern art has the intense realism of death been so delicately handled1 and yet with such uncompromising force4 ,the faces of the women bending over the loved corpse are full of grief and perplexity1 yet even in the atmosphere of death there is a subtle breath of triumph and of hope1 a sense that the body is not all1 that what is left is but the shell1 the 8house of ,life20 the true ,life is not dead1 but gone--whither8 ,the tender light that plays around the mourners1 and the contrast of the vigorous little body of the young child with the aged and shattered frame of the dead martyr1 seem to voice the eternal protest of the heart against annihilation1 the irrepressible demand of the soul for a future life4 ,thirty years apart from 8,the ,light of the ,world0 and 8,mary in the ,house of ,john10 but akin to both in motive and spirit1 is 8,the ,tree of ,life10 one of the latest and noblest of ,mr4 ,burne-,jones's paintings4 ,this sombre monochrome1 so absolutely original in design1 so chastened and restrained in execution1 ranks with the highest symbolic work of the ,pre-,raphaelites in its grasp of the idea of victory through suffering4 ,for 8,the ,tree of ,life0 is the ,cross4 ,its roots are in the very foundations of the earth2 its branches are fed with the heart's blood of humanity1 and its fruit reaches unto ,heaven4 ,the ,figure that hangs upon it is brooding in benediction over the whole world2 the supreme type of that immortal love which fulfils the divine law of sacrifice2 embodying in one great symbol the lesson of all history1-- 8,knowledge by suffering entereth1 ,and ,life is perfected by ,death40 ,man1 woman and children are gathered beneath the shadow of the ,tree4 ,on the one side is a garden of flowers1 and on the other a harvest of corn4 ,along the margin of the earth is the inscription3--8,in ,mundo pressuram habebitis2 sed confidite2 ego vici mundum40 78,in the world ye shall have tribulation2 but be of good cheer2 ,i have overcome the world407 ,the painting is carried out in a very low key of colour1 and a kind of austere and grave conventionalism restrains the sweeping outlines and the sober light4 ,the accessories of the landscape are of the simplest character2 no extraneous detail intrudes upon the perfect harmony of the at-one-ment2 no over-elaboration mars the calm of that absolute resignation1 that unquenchable hope4 ,the ,christ upon the ,cross is at once the interpretation of the mystery of pain1 and the covenant of a complete redemption wherein man at last 8shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied40 ----- ,footnote #g3 ,rev4 ,p4,f4 ,forsyth3 8,religion in ,recent ,art40 ,footnote #h3 ,the ,round ,table ,series3 8,rossetti10 by ,p4,w4 ,nicholson4 ,,chapter ,,vii4 ,,treatment ,,of ,,medi,,val ,,and ,,modern ,,romance4 ,the ,christian ,element in ,neo-,hellenism and ,romance--8,how ,they ,met ,themselves0 and 8,michael ,scott's ,wooing0--,medivalism and ,romantic ,love--8,romeo and ,juliet0 and 8,ophelia0--,millais's ,romantic ,landscapes-- 8,the ,woodman's ,daughter10 8,the ,blind ,girl10 8,the ,vale of ,rest10 8,autumn ,leaves0--,keats's 8,isabella0--,tennyson's 8,mariana0 and 8,idylls of the ,king0--,the ,idea of ,retribution--8,king ,arthur's ,tomb10 8,paolo and ,francesca10 8,death of ,lady ,macbeth10 8,the ,awakening ,conscience10 8,hesterna ,rosa10 8,the ,gate of ,memory10 8,found10 8,psyche10 8,proserpine10 8,pandora0--,the ,idea of ,duty--8,the ,hugenot10 8,the ,black ,brunswicker10 8,claudio and ,isabella0--,old and ,new ,chivalry--8,sir ,isumbras0 and 8,the ,rescue0--8,the ,merciful ,knight0--8,st4 ,agnes' ,eve0-- ,ideal and ,platonic ,love--8,the ,salutation of ,beatrice10 8,the ,boat of ,love10 8,beata ,beatrix10 8,dante's ,dream10 8,our ,lady of ,pity40 ,it is but an arbitrary classification that divides the so-called 8religious0 art of the ,pre-,raphaelites from their portrayals of that half historic1 half legendary wonder-world we vaguely called 8romance40 ,rossetti1 it has been rightly said1 8was a pilgrim who had got out of the region of shrines1 but who at every cross-like thing knelt down by the force of thought and muscle40#i ,above all other qualities of ,pre- ,raphaelite painting1 it is the instinctive perception of 8cross-like things0 that gives nobility and tenderness to the work of ,rossetti and his colleagues4 ,by the light of that inward vision do they choose and transfigure every theme4 ,the haunting sense of the mysteries of existence1 of the immanence of the supernatural in the natural sphere1 and of the divine possibilities of human nature2 the apprehension of the moral law1 of sacrifice1 reward and penalty1 and of the consummation of earth's good and evil in an immortal realm2--these abide with the painters when they pass from the holy ground of ,judea and ,galilee to the ,pagan splendours of the ,hellenic age1 the later glories of medivalism1 and the hard prose conditions of modern life4 ,the same great drama of humanity is set before us1 but on another stage1 with other players4 ,the ideas which dominate the minds of the artists1 the principles by which they interpret alike the history of ,jerusalem and the problems of ,london1 are of universal application4 ,a classic myth to them is as rich in meaning as a ,christian parable2 a legend of chivalrous manliness or heroic womanhood as sacred as if written in a canonical gospel4 ,holman ,hunt's 8,awakening ,conscience0 and 8,claudio and ,isabella0 are as profoundly religious as 8,mary ,magdalene at the ,door20 ,rossetti's 8,lady of ,pity0 and 8,beata ,beatrix0 glow with a spiritual fervour as pure as that of 8,ecce ,ancilla ,domini20 the lessons of ,burne-,jones's 8,merciful ,knight0 and of ,millais's 8,hugenot0 are as clear as any that 8,the ,light of the ,world0 can teach us2--and this1 not that the painters have secularized the highest things1 but that they have sanctified the lower2 have pierced to the common sources of religious thought and feeling1 and have brought into the labour of the present hour the wide and eternal meanings of the past4 ,in the most nave phase of romantic mysticism1 with its devout faith in the presence of spiritual forces in play at all points upon the human soul1 and in the power of the imagination to visualize conjectured things1 ,rossetti conceived the finest of his early dramatic sketches1-- 8,how ,they ,met ,themselves0 and 8,michael ,scott's ,wooing20 the former showing the influence of ,blake in a more marked degree perhaps than any other drawings of the same period4 ,the lovers that 8meet themselves0 are confronted1 while walking in a wood1 with the apparitions of their own persons1 reflected1 as it were1 in the air before them1 in exact and startling similitude1--a conception found in the well-known ,dppelgnger legends of ,german folk-lore1 which credit a dual existence to every human soul1 endowing it with a sort of spectral 8double0 after the manner of the ,buddhistic 8astral body10 save that the ,dppelgnger appear to be independent of the subject's consciousness and will4 ,the sudden terror of the lovers1--the lady sinking to the ground1 the knight drawing his sword in her defence against the mysterious phenomenon1 yet hesitating1 like ,marcellus on the ramparts of ,elsinore1 to 8offer it the show of violence10 is shown with a force that emphasizes the reality of the vision to those who see it4 ,in this picture1 as in ,rossetti's treatment of a more exalted theme1 8,the ,girlhood of ,mary ,virgin10 the barrier is over-leaped that separates the visible from the unseen2 the outer and inner worlds are merged naturally and imperceptibly the one into the other--an hypothesis in which the previsions of art may yet be vindicated by scientific discovery2 and the forms of the spectral lovers are scarcely more shadowy than those who stand aghast before them in the flesh4 ,it has been suggested that the design may typify the meeting of the human soul with its prototype in ages long gone by2 the recognition of unknown kinships 7as if brought over from a prior existence7 through that strange sense of familiarity which sometimes surprises us when we wander in spirit through the dim mazes of the historic past4 ,in the sketch for 8,michael ,scott's ,wooing10 the wizard-hero conjures up1 for the entertainment of his lady-love1 a magical pageant of ,life1 ,love1 and other symbolic figures1 which appear before her in a glass4 ,here the purely subjective nature of the vision is brought out2 the lady alone can see the pageant2 her attendants are as blind to it as ,hamlet's mother to the ghost of the murdered king4 ,from this initial belief in the potency of the unseen there comes the apprehension of the mystery of fate1 of the burden of impenetrable destiny1 of the evil powers that assail mankind from within4 ,something even of the ancient fear of the jealousy of the gods against men's happiness returns in the medival awe of human joys or triumphs1 and its ascetic suspicion of prosperity1 more especially in the field of romantic love4 ,a profound insight of the dualism of nature keeps the romantic spirit in remembrance of the cost of all earthly pleasure1 and of the price set by the laws of being upon all aspiration and desire4 ,this it is that gives its subtlest charm to the 8,romeo and ,juliet0 of ,madox ,brown1 with its embracing lovers on the balcony at break of day1 full of the passionate poetry of protest against the pitiless caprice1 as it seems1 of the fate that tears them asunder2 and to the 8,ophelia0 of ,rossetti1--now sitting troubled and half-frightened before ,hamlet's earnest gaze1 now offering him the treasured letters from the casket at her side1 now led away in her 8first madness10 by the hand of ,horatio1 from the presence of the king and queen2 or of ,hughes1--singing dreamily to herself as she sits by the waterside on a fallen tree2 or of ,watts1-- gazing down with yearning eyes into the pool beneath the willow2 or--best of all--of ,millais1 floating downstream to her death1 with her slackening hands full of flowers1 the very embodiment of the pathetic helplessness of weak and isolated womanhood against the tide of the world's strife1-- weak1 indeed1 through the isolation of ages1 having never known1 in life or ancestry1 the bracing discipline of a free and responsible existence4 ,no one of the ,pre-,raphaelites has equalled ,millais at his best in the landscape setting of the struggle between the human soul and the circumstance that hems it in2 and the scenery of 8,ophelia0 is among the most exquisite of his work4 ,the beauty of the river and its richly wooded banks1 its overhanging branches1 and its current-driven weeds1 gives the greater pathos to the dying girl's face1 on which the wraith only of its past and lost beauty lingers to mock the sadness of her end4 8,the ,woodman's ,daughter0 suggests even more finely the contrast of the unimpassioned glory of nature and the tragedy of romantic love2 for here it is not death but life1 the complexity of life and duty1 that separates the lovers each from each4 ,between the rough and uncomely peasant girl and the shy young aristocrat who stands so awkwardly before her with his proffered gift of hothouse fruit1 there is a gulf fixed which will take a higher civilization than ours to bridge over4 ,and again1 in treating of the broader and more common loves and joys of humanity1 does ,millais set before us the same contrast in 8,the ,blind ,girl0 and 8,the ,vale of ,rest40 ,the ,blind ,girl is a poor and uncomely vagrant halting by the road-side1 wrapping her shawl round her child- guide1 who nestles against her in the ,april weather4 ,but around her is the loveliness of an ,english village landscape after rain4 ,the warmth of the bursting sun consoles her as she turns her face to its light2 the rainbow which she cannot see gives radiance to the humble cottages2 the wet grass is cool to her hand1 and the peace of resignation seems to fill her maimed and darkened life4 ,but the contrast of her sorrow with nature's joy is very real1 though for the moment she forgets it in the little comfort that may yet be hers4 ,the same resignation in the face of the unanswered problem transfigures the mourners in 8,the ,vale of ,rest10-- the two calm1 almost stoical nuns in a convent garden at sunset time4 ,the younger woman is digging a grave2 the elder1 who sits on a recumbent tombstone hard by1 is gazing at the burning gold and crimson of the west1 and sees in the midst of its splendour the darkness of the coffin- shaped cloud which1 by a widespread superstition1 was long deemed the omen of approaching death4 ,the superb 8,autumn ,leaves10 which ,mr4 ,ruskin pronounces 8among the world's masterpieces10 may perhaps be added to this great group of romantic landscapes1 inasmuch as the pathos of its poetry is no less deep1 though more subtle1 than that of 8,ophelia10 8,the ,woodman's ,daughter10 8,the ,blind ,girl10 and 8,the ,vale of ,rest40 ,a group of children are burning dead leaves in the twilight of a mellow autumn day4 ,oblivious of the changing seasons1 realizing nothing of the solemnity of autumn1 or the sad significance of the waning year1 they revel merely in the bonfire they have made1 and are troubled by no fear for the winter1 or for the chance of spring4 ,in the several paintings from ,keats's 8,isabella0--that favourite subject of the early days of the ,brotherhood--the contrast lies mainly in the direction of individual character2 the tragedy1 in the power of such character to work for evil against the good4 ,especially in ,millais's masterpiece1 8,lorenzo and ,isabella10 are the beauty and graciousness of ,isabella and her lover set with a passionate intensity against the icy cynicism and sensuous brutality of the brothers and their guests1 and the conflict is felt to be directly between malicious cruelty and innocent love4 ,on the other hand the devotion and self-abandonment of ,isabella's thwarted passion find noble expression in the picture by ,holman ,hunt4 ,the figure of the weeping girl1 who has risen from her bed to worship at her strange and terrible shrine1--the ,pot of ,basil containing her murdered lover's head1 is seen in the early light of dawn1 that almost quenches1 in its pitiless coldness1 the more tender light of the lamp that burns in the little sanctuary of secret love4 ,the altar-cloth spread for the sacred relic is embroidered with a design of passion-flowers1 and every accessory is symbolic of ,isabella's grief and despair4 ,the same unique subject1 it may here be noted1 has inspired one of the finest paintings of an artist worthily representative of the younger generation of ,pre-,raphaelites 7if the name may be perpetuated beyond its immediate and temporary significance7--,mr4 ,j4,m4 ,strudwick2 whose design1 however1 deals with the culmination of the tragedy1 the theft of the ,pot of ,basil by the guilty brothers1 and the on-coming madness of ,isabella4 ,a stronger moral element is soon perceptible in the work of ,rossetti and ,millais when they approach the poetry of ,tennyson for subject matter1 and begin to draw upon the great cycle of ,arthurian legends which he restored in modern garb to ,english literature4 ,even outside the 8,idylls of the ,king10 in their paintings of ,tennyson's 8,mariana10 the passion and the mystery of romantic love are tempered with the growing consciousness of moral responsibility1 of ,love's heroic power to conquer destiny--if only the appeals of the lower nature were not so urgent and so sweet4 ,in other words1 the lower dualism has given place to the higher2 the conflict is not so much between the earthly joy and the misfortune that threatens it in death or any calamity from the physical sphere1 but rather between the baser and the better life within4 ,of such a spirit is the 8,mariana0 of ,rossetti1 kneeling and weeping in her dimly-lit chamber in 8,the ,heart of the ,night10 or of ,millais1 wearily casting away her unfinished work in the close prison of the 8moated grange0--that perfect allegory of modern love1 pent in by the mire of indolence and conventionality1 and vainly dreaming of an unearned ideal2 waiting for the deliverance which1 as ,mariana scarcely comprehends1 must be a self-deliverance into nobler aims and higher standards of duty and of intelligent sacrifice4 ,the sense of a lofty spiritual destiny re- enters at this point into ,pre-,raphaelite art2 the meaning of the search for the ,holy ,grail is apparent still more clearly in ,rossetti's 8,sir ,galahad in the ,ruined ,chapel10 and later1 in ,burne-,jones's more severe and chastened types of the pilgrim-knight4 ,it has been charged against both these painters that the physical beauty and glory of manhood was almost wholly absent from their conception of life4 ,even in the nearest approach to such a concession1 in the latest romantic masterpiece of the younger artist1 8,the ,legend of the ,briar ,rose10 the asceticism learnt at the ,arthurian shrines persists1 indeed1 in the mellowness of his maturity4 ,the heroes of the ,pre-,raphaelites are no muscular warriors1 as conventional art would portray them4 ,they are concerned with inward conflicts rather than with outward foes4 ,they are the knights-errant of a new chivalry1--to whom moral righteousness is a higher thing than physical courage2 self-conquest a nobler triumph than the routing of armies4 ,for they 8wrestle not against flesh and blood1 but against principalities1 against powers1 against the rulers of the darkness of this world1 against spiritual wickedness in high places40 ,the whole series of the ,arthurian designs1 from the illustrations to ,moxon's 8,tennyson0 and the frescoes at ,oxford1 onward to the latest work of ,burne-,jones and his followers1 are dominated by this idea of a spiritual pilgrimage1 as of beings exiled from a higher realm1 which to regain they must needs pass through the lower4 8,their sojourn on earth10 says ,m4 ,gabriel ,sarrazin1#aj 8oppresses these ,pre-,raphaelites1 lost among our pre-occupations of business and of ease40 ,and further1 the sense of the supernatural world1 of the struggle between the spiritual and the physical in man1 leads onward to the conception of retribution and punishment1 8not0 7as ,hegel puts it7 8as something arbitrary1 but as the other half of sin40 ,the inexorableness of the moral law could hardly be more finely suggested than in ,rossetti's treatment of the guilty love of ,lancelot and ,guinevere4 8,king ,arthur's ,tomb10 despite its crudity and harshness of drawing1 remains among the most superb of his early drawings4 ,the aged queen1 now an abbess honoured and revered1 is visiting the tomb of the dead ,arthur4 ,but not all her long atonement of remorse and piety can avail wholly to blot out the sin of her youth4 ,for even here1 as she kneels to pray1 the dark and terrible ghost of ,lancelot thrusts itself between her and the pure effigy whose marble face she seeks in penitence and tears4 ,the converse of the picture was that of which ,rossetti sought to make a fresco on the ill-fated walls of the ,oxford ,debating ,union4 ,the design represents 8,sir ,lancelot before the ,shrine of the ,sangrael40 ,he seems to have almost attained the goal of his pilgrimage2 the ,holy ,grail is just within his grasp2 but in the hour that might have brought victory1 the old sin brings mockery and defeat3 the face that looks out at him from the place of his hope is the sad1 reproachful face of ,guinevere4 ,with scarcely less of tragic force and direct solemnity does ,rossetti carry this thought of retribution into the world of medival ,italy1 into the cycle of legend and romance that gathers round the name of ,dante4 ,the love-story of 8,paolo and ,francesca da ,rimini10 recorded by ,dante in the 8,divina ,comedia10 has been the theme of poets and painters for many a year1 and is the subject of one of the finest water-colour drawings made in ,rossetti's transition period4 ,francesca1 the wife of ,lanciotto1 the deformed son of the lord of ,rimini1 fell in love with her husband's brother ,paolo2 and ,lanciotto1 discovering the two in guilty companionship1 put them both to death4 ,in the fifth canto of the 8,inferno10 ,dante describes the terrible sight permitted to him of the condemned lovers in the second circle of ,hell4 ,rossetti's picture is in triptych form1 and in the centre are the figures of ,dante and ,virgil1 his guide4 ,above them is the brief inscription1 8,o ,lasso60 ,in the left compartment is depicted the fatal embrace of ,paolo and ,francesca at the moment of the avowal of their love1 when in reading together the story of ,lancelot1 the book suddenly fell from their hands1 and1 as the narrator simply confesses1 8that day we read no more40 ,in the right-hand space are seen the lovers1 clasping each other wildly in the darkness and among the furious storms of hell1 unable to release themselves from that fixed embrace4 ,the characteristic idea of making the penalty consist in the involuntary perpetuation of the sin1--the guilty love becoming1 as it were1 its own sufficient punishment1 belongs1 of course1 to ,dante1 but is worked out with singular power in ,rossetti's design4 ,not only is the stern and relentless fate portrayed with the utmost sincerity in the sequel1 but even in the first panel the thought of the coming retribution is finely suggested by the introduction of one sufficient touch at the background of the scene4 ,beneath the edge of a curtain is seen the foot of the approaching husband1 bringing his vengeance and the lovers' doom4 ,the same subject has been more elaborately and completely treated by ,mr4 ,g4,f4 ,watts1 whose picture shows ,francesca telling her sad tale to ,dante and ,virgil as they pass2 and the poet who is said to have known her on earth1 and to have written the record quoted from the 8,inferno0 in the house at ,rimini in which she was born1 is depicted sinking in a swoon before her1 overcome with pity and with awe4 ,again1 and in a widely different field of dramatic narrative1 does ,rossetti bring this passionate sense of retribution into play4 ,his drawing for the never-finished picture1 8,the ,death of ,lady ,macbeth10 is full of the same half-pitiful and half-triumphant spirit of righteous vengeance1 and the same perception of inexorable penalty4 ,the aged and dying woman crouching on her bed has once been comely and of commanding countenance2 and in her last hour the remembered beauty of her face1 the lingering majesty of her figure1 seem to overawe her attendants1 one of whom presses a sponge to her head4 ,in that changed face the conflict between remorse and pride1 ambition and terror1 is still fierce and strong2 but she is dying utterly alone3 there is no love1 no tenderness1 in the ministry of those who gather round the murderess4 ,still more clearly and resolutely is this perception of moral issues sustained by the ,pre-,raphaelites when they pass from history and legend to classic mythology1 to allegorical type1 or to the dramatic presentation of modern life4 ,in the 8,awakening ,conscience0 of ,holman ,hunt1 in the exquisitely pathetic 8,psyche0 of ,g4,f4 ,watts1 in the 8,hesterna ,rosa10 8,gate of ,memory10 and 8,found0 of ,rossetti1 the bitter cost of sin is realized with unfaltering consistency4 ,rossetti's long- laboured and yet uncompleted 8,found0 may be taken as the companion1 if not the sequel1 to his poem1 8,jenny40 ,it shows us the last humiliation of a ruined girl who is 8found0--dying on the streets of ,london--by the lover of her youth1--a countryman who has driven in with his milk-cart through the chill light of a ,london dawn4 ,all the pride and struggle of the past is written on her once lovely face1 and she shrinks in shame and terror from his touch4 8,ah6 gave not these two hearts their mutual pledge1 ,under one mantle sheltered 'neath the hedge ,in gloaming courtship8 ,and1 ,o ,god6 to-day ,he only knows he holds her2--but what part ,can life now take8 ,she cries in her locked heart1-- #8,leave me--,i do not know you--go away6'0#aa ,it might almost be the same sad girl that stands at 8,the ,gate of ,memory10 watching a group of young and innocent maidens at play beside a well4 8,she leaned herself against the wall ,and longed for drink to slake her thirst ,and memory at once40 ,a more original and striking composition is 8,hesterna ,rosa0--8,yesterday's ,rose40 ,all the weird realism of ,rossetti's most medival manner pervades this painfully impressive design2--medival in spirit1 and yet almost ,hogarthian in its bold handling of human degradation and debauchery4 ,the motive is taken from 8,elena's ,song0 in ,sir ,henry ,taylor's 8,philip van ,artevelde10 ,part ,,ii41 ,act v43 8,quoth tongue of neither maid nor wife ,to heart of neither wife nor maid1 #8,lead we not here a jolly life1 ,betwixt the shrine and shade8' 8,quoth heart of neither maid nor wife ,to tongue of neither wife nor maid1 #8,thou wag'st1 but ,i am worn with strife1 ,and feel like flowers that fade4'0 ,the scene is in a tent at early daybreak1 amid a group of gamblers and depraved women throwing dice4 ,but one of them is a girl still beautiful1 and not yet hardened by the coarseness of her new life4 ,she shrinks from the kiss of the player who bends over her hand4 8,yesterday's ,rose0 is not wholly faded2 only her first fresh bloom is gone2 she has bartered it irretrievably for her chance in the desperate game of passion1 like the vengeful woman in 8,the ,laboratory10 offering her pearls to buy poison for her enemy4 ,the contrast between the shamed 8rose0 and her brutalized companions is emphasized by the tender light of the dawn1 which creeps through the orchard trees outside1 and makes the lamp within appear more yellow and dull and weak4 ,entirely modern in spirit and execution is ,holman ,hunt's treatment of a similar theme4 ,the 8,awakening ,conscience0 is that of a girl idling with her paramour in a newly and luxuriously furnished room4 ,he has been singing to her1 not noticing the change in her face1 and his hands still pass carelessly over the pianoforte keys4 ,but the words of the song-- ,moore's 8,oft in the ,stilly ,night0--have stirred a sudden anguish in her heart2 she has started up1 tortured with long pent memories and overcome with shame and despair4 ,the utter falsity of her new surroundings seems to strike her as she gazes round the cruelly unhomelike home4 ,a terrible symbolism confronts her on every side2 the showy tapestry is woven with a design of ripe corn on which the carrion birds are feeding2 the picture hanging above the mantelpiece represents the woman taken in adultery4 ,the tragic intensity of the painting is hardly surpassed by any other of the artist's work4 ,far back in the golden ages of classic myth1 the ever-significant story of 8,psyche0 suggests the same stern lesson1--of the irretrievable loss which comes by violation of the moral law or disobedience to the dicta of those 8gods0 by which the men of old time knew the divine and imperative instincts of the soul4 ,the fall of ,psyche has its message for to-day4 ,it was made known to her that the god ,eros should come to earth to be her husband4 ,in the darkness of the night he should visit her bed1 and there he should vouchsafe to her the sacrament of his love1--but on one condition3 that she should never seek to look upon his face1 or lift the veil of mystery by which ,nature shrouded the sanctities of the godhead from her eyes4 ,but ,psyche's curiosity overcame her reverence and trustfulness4 ,in her eagerness to know ,love's sacred secrets and lay bare the holiest of holies upon earth1 she took a lamp1 and would have looked boldly at her visitant4 ,but immediately the spell was broken2 the heavenly ,eros fled from her1 never to return4 ,the widowed ,psyche1 in ,mr4 ,watts's picture1 stands ashamed and broken-hearted1 knowing too late the prize that she has forfeited4 ,her drooping figure is the embodiment of dazed remorse4 ,she has dared to trifle with the divinest things1 to be familiar with that which is rare1 to probe too curiously into the mystic borderland between earth and heaven4 ,the devout sense of the limitations of man's knowledge1 and of the penalty attaching to any impious familiarity with the supernatural world1 has thus its roots in ,hellenism1 but attains its finest flower in the spirit of romance4 ,it is the blending of the sensuous dignity of classicism with the subtle tenderness of romance that gives so fine a pathos to this poor 8,psyche10--typical as she is of the modern age1 mourning the lost mystery which its own thirst for knowledge at all hazards has dispelled2 or again1 that places ,rossetti's 8,pandora0 and 8,proserpine0 in the highest rank of contemporary art4 ,for ,proserpine too has eaten the forbidden fruit of the lower knowledge1 whereby the higher wisdom is driven away4 ,she has eaten one grain of the fatal pomegranate of ,hades1 which enchains her to the lower world2 and only at rare seasons can her sullied spirit attain the upper air4 ,her troubled face1 as she stands in the picture1 in a gloomy corridor of her prison-palace1 with the broken fruit in her hand1 seems to tell of the long struggle of a soul that1 having once tasted the coarser joys1 has become less sensitive to the higher1 and is torn between the baser enchantment and the pure delights which it longs to regain4 ,a critic already quoted#ab has pointed out that there is 8always in ,rossetti's women the kind of sorrow that ennobles affection40 ,the painter never loses the sense of conflict between the dangers of the physical nature and the glories of the spirit which it serves4 ,the sorrow of his great 8,pandora10 even more than of the beautiful 8,proserpine10 is the sorrow of a goddess over her own infirmity4 ,she has opened the mystic casket which she was bidden to keep sealed1 and now she stands helpless before the witness of her deed4 ,the potent spirits are escaping from the box1 and she can never undo the mischief she has done4 8,the whole design10 says ,mr4 ,swinburne1 8is among ,rossetti's mightiest in its godlike terror and imperial trouble of beauty1 shadowed by the smoke and fiery vapour of winged and fleshless passions crowding from the casket in spires of flame-lit and curling cloud round her fatal face and mourning veil of hair40 8,what of the end1 ,pandora8 ,was it thine1 ,the deed that set these fiery pinions free8 ,ah6 wherefore did the ,olympian consistory ,in its own likeness make thee half divine8 ,was it that ,juno's brow might stand a sign ,for ever1 and the mien of ,pallas be ,a deadly thing8 ,and that all men might see ,in ,venus' eyes the gaze of ,proserpine8 ,what of the end8 ,these beat their wings at will1 ,the ill-born things1 the good things turned to ill1-- ,powers of the impassioned hours prohibited4 ,ay1 clench the casket now6 ,whither they go ,thou may'st not dare to think3 nor canst thou know ,if ,hope still pent there be alive or dead40#ac ,it follows1 then1 that the earnest apprehension of the spiritual sphere1 and of a divine justice and retribution for sin1 will give a special power and reality to pictures dealing with a crisis of duty1 or a moment of choice between martyrdom and sin4 ,such a choice1 such a responsibility1 is the motive of some of the finest work of ,millais's transition period1--8,the ,hugenot10 8,the ,proscribed ,royalist10 8,the ,rescue10 and 8,the ,black ,brunswicker40 8,the ,hugenot0 is probably the most popular1 as it is the most perfect1 of the painter's earlier masterpieces4 ,the story which it tells is explained in its full title3 8,a ,hugenot1 on ,st4 ,bartholomew's ,day1 refusing to shield himself from danger by wearing the ,roman ,catholic badge40 8,when the clock of the ,palais de ,justice shall sound upon the great bell at daybreak0 7so ran the order of the ,duke of ,guise71 8then each good ,catholic must bind a strip of white linen round his arm1 and place a fair white cross in his cap40 ,a ,catholic lady is beseeching her ,protestant lover to wear the white scarf which will preserve him from the coming massacre4 ,her beautiful face is drawn with anxious terror as she tries to bind the kerchief round his arm1 but he1 embracing her1 draws it resolutely away2 the mental struggle is not his1 but hers2 in spite of the tenderness of his face1 there is a certain sternness and solemnity in it which tells that nothing will move him from his purpose2 that he is ready1 and gladly ready1 for martyrdom4 ,the girl's love pleads vainly against his duty and his doom4 ,in 8,the ,black ,brunswicker10 which formed the pendant to 8,the ,hugenot10 the same drama of conflicting love and duty is set forth1 though with less convincing fervour and exalted passion than before4 ,the lady seems to be of ,french family1 and is somewhat pettishly delaying the departure of her lover1 an officer of the ,black ,brunswick corps1 before the ,battle of ,waterloo4 ,the converse of the choice of man and woman between disloyalty and death is nobly given us by ,holman ,hunt in his 8,claudio and ,isabella0 7from ,shakespeare's 8,measure for ,measure071 where the heroism and the devotion lie on the woman's side4 ,claudio has been condemned to death1 and his sister's honour is asked as the price of his release4 ,she visits him in prison1 clad in her nun's garb1 and ,claudio--the human craving for life conquering for the moment his better nature1 cries out in a half shamed appeal1 8,o ,isabel1 444 death is a fearful thing40 ,but ,isabella1 standing before him1 pressing her hands against his heart1 her face full of pity and distress1 gives back her resolute answer1 8,and shamd life a hateful60 ,together with the conception of duty in its relation to romantic love is linked the ideal of chivalry1--of the immediate glory of duty and its supreme rewards1 especially when exercised in championship of the weak1 of a defenceless foe1 or of womanhood4 ,the splendour of physical courage tends always to give place to the power of moral courage1 as in mercy and forgiveness rather than in revenge2 or if the physical courage be brought into play1 it will1 in progress of civilization be applied to deeds of helpfulness instead of cruelty4 ,the nobility of true knighthood1 which ,rossetti conceived almost exclusively in the medival spirit1 and presented with exquisite verve and passion in his little sketches of 8,st4 ,george0 and the 8,princess ,sabra10 and of which the converse--the potential knightliness of woman--was suggested both by ,rossetti and ,millais in their 8,joan of ,arc0 designs1 finds full expression in the latter's picture of 8,sir ,isumbras at the ,ford40 ,an aged knight1 clad in splendid armour1 and bearing with courtly dignity his honours and his years1 is fording a river on his war-horse1 and pauses to lift up two little peasant children who have asked him to carry them to the other side4 ,the simple graciousness and humility of the act seem to transfigure the old warrior's face1 which is further lit by the rich light of the landscape in the setting sun4 ,by the side of this great painting should be set the earlier1 but in great measure the companion work1 8,the ,rescue10 in which the same artist translates the thought of beneficent chivalry into modern and familiar life4 ,for the knight of 8,the ,rescue0 is a ,london fireman1 in the act of saving three children from a burning house4 ,the light that suffuses his calmly heroic face is not the natural radiance of a sunset glow1 but the fierce glare of flames around the staircase1 down which he brings his precious burden safe and sound4 8,the ,rescue0 is a poem of modern chivalry in a great crisis3 8,sir ,isumbras0 celebrates medival chivalry in common things4 ,the strong self-possession of the fireman in the midst of imminent peril1 beset on all sides by heat1 smoke1 water1 and burning brands1 not callous or insensible to fear1 but superior to it1 gives us1 as it were1 the other side of that perfect knighthood suggested by the simple kindness of 8,sir ,isumbras at the ,ford40 ,in both these pictures1 as indeed in 8,the ,hugenot0 and in ,hunt's 8,claudio and ,isabella10 the impression conveyed is not merely of a momentary heroism of choice or deed1 but of the long discipline which must have gone to produce it1 and of what all goodness costs to the life and lives behind it4 ,it is in these aspects that the ,pre-,raphaelites portray1 as we have already contended1 not merely action but character2 not drama only1 but the hidden forces of human struggle and circumstance which give the drama its meaning for all time4 ,but great as are these pictures in thought and emotion1 excellent as are most of them in technical quality1 they are even surpassed1 in the sheer passion of romantic worship1 in the purest essence of religious chivalry1 by one of the earliest and1 technically1 crudest paintings of ,burne-,jones in what may fairly be called his ,rossettian period4 8,the ,merciful ,knight0 stands apart1 in its desperate realism1 its mystic exaltation and fervour1 its emotional abandonment1 from all the ethereal and chastened ideals of his imaginative maturity4 ,it represents a phase of feeling very transitory1 for the most part1 with the ,pre-,raphaelite ,brotherhood1--a return to the most devout and ascetic medivalism1 untempered by the larger ,hellenic spirit which re-awoke in modern romance4 ,and1 full charged as it is with the inspiration of ,rossetti in drawing and colour1 its religious severity links it rather to the manner of ,holman ,hunt4 ,it tells the story 8of a knight who forgave his enemy when he might have destroyed him1 and how the image of ,christ kissed him1 in token that his acts had pleased ,god40 ,low at a wayside shrine bends the ,merciful ,knight1 prostrated by the spiritual struggle between magnanimity and vengeance which he has just passed through4 ,and as he kneels in mingled prayer and thankfulness over his own self-conquest and moral victory1 the image of ,christ1 rudely carved and hanging on a simple cross1 bends down1 miraculously moved1 to kiss his cheek4 ,rarely if ever have the ,pre-,raphaelite painters surpassed in any field the emotional power of this great design4 ,the conflict between loyalty to a cause and charity towards its fallen enemy was for some years a favourite subject with the ,pre-,raphaelites of every grade4 ,it yielded the motive1 for instance1 of ,millais's 8,proscribed ,royalist10 in which a ,puritan lady secretly conveys food to her lover1 a ,cavalier1 who is in hiding in a woodland oak2 of ,w4,s4 ,burton's 8,puritan10 where the austere lady1 walking with her lover1 takes pity on a dying ,cavalier1 wounded by ,roundhead soldiers in a wood2 and of ,w4,l4 ,windus's 8,outlaw10 similarly hurt and tended in an equally sylvan scene4 ,but in none of these cases is the spiritual struggle of the ministering visitant portrayed with an intensity at all to be compared with the exalted passion that dominates 8,the ,merciful ,knight40 ,such are the principal stages of thought and feeling through which the ,pre-,raphaelite painters pass--in no given order indeed1 but with a wholly intelligible sequence of ideas--from the first impulses of romance--the apprehension of the supernatural1 of the mystery of fate1 of the moral order1 and the divine possibilities of human life--to that highest idealism of romantic love1 and of its power over death and destiny1 which we find in their interpretation of ,keats's 8,eve of ,st4 ,agnes10 and supremely in ,rossetti's imaginative treatment of the love of ,dante for ,beatrice4 ,something of the mystical glory of a pure and lofty passion1 and of the power of perfect womanhood to raise1 as in ,keats's poem1 the earthlier elements of love into the very essence of worship1 appears in ,hunt's early picture1 8,the ,flight of ,madeline and ,porphyro10 and in the triptych of 8,the ,eve of ,st4 ,agnes10 by ,arthur ,hughes2 but its most complete expression1 apart from ,rossetti1 must be sought in ,millais's 8,st4 ,agnes' ,eve10--in the opinion of many1 the greatest of his paintings2 the consummation of that wonderful aftermath of poetic genius which followed a full decade later than what seemed to be his prime4 ,for the beauty of ,madeline1 by a significant paradox1 is that she is not beautiful4 ,her attitude is daringly simple2 she is standing by her bed in the moonlight1 half-unclad2 her gown has slipped from her waist to her feet1 and the keen1 silver-blue rays creep softly about her slender figure and shed a faint light into the foreground of the deep-shadowed room4 ,yet with all the mellow tenderness of colour and atmosphere that wrap her round1 there is in no detail of her form or gesture1 or the aspect of her averted face1 the slightest appeal to the sensuous possibilities of the scene4 ,there is about her an extraordinary spiritual loveliness1 born of the utter artlessness and sincerity of her pose and the girlish innocence of her look1 as if the absolute naturalness of the situation were its own protection from all thought of ill4 ,everything around her speaks of her simple holiness and purity1 and seals1 as it were1 the pledge of the answering purity of ,porphyro's love4 ,but it is in the presence of the greatest romantic passion known to ,european poetry--the ideal1 immortal love of ,dante for ,beatrice--that ,pre- ,raphaelite painting reaches1 in the art of ,rossetti1 the acme of its power to transfigure and interpret the highest experiences of the human soul4 ,with the most chastened symbolism1 the finest selectiveness of design and colouring1 the loftiest fervour of thought and expression1 ,rossetti unfolds to us the inmost glories of ,platonic love1 as ,dante knew it1 and ,michaelangelo2 and as our own age vaguely but with increasing aspiration seeks it through many an error and much pain4 ,he leads us in imagination through the sacred course of that all-embracing worship which upheld the soul of ,dante through every vicissitude of toil and trial1 from the first hour in which the smile of the ,blessed ,beatrice made the boy's heart tremble for joy1 until the solemn moment of resignation when 8it was made known to him that his beloved ,lady must die40 ,again and again did ,rossetti attempt the unwearying subject of 8,the ,salutation of ,beatrice40 ,the most important that remain to us of those efforts1 which in one medium or another cover nearly the whole of his artistic career1 are the early water-colour sketches in which the scene of the fateful meeting is laid in the portico of a church2 the diptych showing in one compartment ,beatrice saluting ,dante in a street in ,florence1 while in the other she appears to him in a field of lilies in ,paradise 78,il ,purgatorio10 canto #cj72 the triptych repeating the same designs1 but having in the centre panel a figure of ,love holding a dial whereon is marked the date 7,june #i1 #abij7 of the salutation2 and a much later version in single form1 representing ,beatrice1 walking alone in ,florence1 within sight of ,dante1 but watched over by the guardian figure of ,love1 with crimson robe and wings4 ,of these works1 the triptych is perhaps the most perfect4 ,the left compartment is inscribed with ,dante's words1 8,e cui saluta f tremar lo core10 and the right with those of the salutation in ,paradise1 8,guardami ben2 ben son1 ben son ,beatrice0 78,behold and see if ,i am truly ,beatrice074 ,again we see the gracious lady passing before the eyes of her young lover in a procession through the chapel at ,bargello1 while above her is depicted 8,giotto painting the portrait of ,dante10--a portrait actually discovered five centuries later on the chapel wall4 ,once more1 ,rossetti pictures ,beatrice embarking with ,dante in 8,the ,boat of ,love40 ,the motive of this work is taken from ,dante's sonnet to ,guido ,calvacanti1 his poet- friend 7who figures1 together with ,cimabue1 the master of ,giotto1 in the sketch above mentioned71 beginning3 8,guido1 ,i would that ,lapo1 thou1 and ,i ,were taken by some skilled enchanted spell1 ,and placed on board a barque that should speed well ,through wind and wave1 and with our will comply40 ,with reverent humility and tenderness ,dante is leading ,beatrice into the enchanted boat of which he dreamed4 ,she yields her hands to him and seems to pause beneath his earnest gaze as she steps down4 ,around her are the companions of their voyage1--,guido ,calvacanti with his lady ,giovanna1 also known as ,primavera1 and ,lapo degli ,uberti and his love4 8,beata ,beatrix10--8,the ,blessed ,beatrice10--depicts1 not the actual death of ,dante's beloved1 but rather a mystic trance in which is made known to her the nearness of her end4 ,she sits on a balcony overlooking the city of ,florence1 which is already shadowed by the coming loss4 ,before her is a sundial1 marking the fatal hour4 ,a dove1 flying into her lap1 carries a poppy-blossom1 the symbol of sleep4 ,the lovely face of ,beatrice is upturned1 as if to greet the unseen messenger1 and full of perfect peace4 ,she seems to have attained the sight of blessedness1 and to be yielding her spirit to a deep and sweet content1 but the earthly weariness lingers about her brows and on her pale and parted lips4 ,in the background1 ,dante and the figure of ,love are seen passing in the street below4 ,love holds a flaming heart in his hands1 and they both gaze in grief and awe at the rapt countenance which the dignity of the coming death suffuses with exquisite pathos and transcendent charm4 ,in the features of this ,beatrice1 more than in any other1 ,rossetti has regained and embodied the thought that found superlative expression in ,michaelangelo1--8the notion of inspired sleep1 of faces charged with dreams40#ad ,a more familiar passage from the 8,vita ,nuova0 is illustrated by the largest1 and in many respects the finest1 of ,rossetti's completed pictures1 8,dante's ,dream20 dealing with the poet's record of the vision in which 8it was revealed to him that the ,lord ,god of ,justice had called his most gracious lady unto ,himself40 8,then feeling bewildered10 says ,dante1 writing of that strange experience1 which occurred to him at the age of twenty-five1 8,i closed mine eyes1 and my brain began to be in travail1 as the brain of one frantic4 ,and ,i seemed to look toward ,heaven1 and to behold a multitude of angels who were returning upwards1 having before them an exceedingly white cloud4 ,then my heart1 that was so full of love1 said unto me1 #8,it is true that our lady lieth dead2' and it seemed to me that ,i went to look upon the body wherein that blessed and most noble spirit had had its abiding place4 ,and so strong was this idle imagining that it made me to behold my lady in death2 whose head certain ladies seemed to be covering with a white veil1 and who was so humble of her aspect that it was as though she had said1 #8,i have attained to look on the beginning of peace4'0 ,on a red-draped couch in the chamber of death lies the ,blessed ,beatrice1 clad in white robes1 her hands folded on her bosom1 and her bright hair spread about her pillow4 ,her maidens1 at her head and feet1 are hanging over her a purple pall1 filled with ,may-blossoms1 the emblem of the spring-time of her life1 in which she died4 ,the floor is strewn with poppies1 symbolizing again the sleep in which she takes her unbroken rest2 and on the frieze above are roses and violets1 suggestive of the beauty and purity of the departed soul4 ,over the couch hangs a lamp1 glimmering with a fast- expiring flame2 and high up in air1 through an opening in the roof1 is seen a flight of angels1 garbed in the deep red of a damask rose1-- symbolic of the ,platonic love which should immortalize the beloved in the sight of all men1--and bearing the white cloud that represents the life that has fled4 ,the crimson doves1 of which ,rossetti made his constant symbol of heavenly ministries1 flutter up and down the staircases on either side of the room4 ,before the couch stands the figure of ,love1 with his flame-coloured robes fastened at the shoulder by a scallop-shell1 signifying pilgrimage4 ,in one hand he holds a winged arrow--his weapon for the heart--and a bunch of rosemary2 with the other he leads ,dante1 who1 clad in the black garb of mourning1 tinged with the purple of consecration1 advances as if in a dream1 and shrinks1 dazed and awed1 before the beauty of the dead ,beatrice4 ,and ,love1 still holding ,dante by the hand1 bends forward and kisses the face of the beloved1 thus making himself the mediator between ,dante and ,beatrice1 and the reconciler of life with death4 ,it is as though the poet's life- long worship were summed up and presented at the gate of heaven by a higher power than his own1 and a benediction wrested for him1 by the very humility and devoutness of his passion1 from the glorified spirit beyond the grave4 ,the dominant note of the design is one of resignation and hope2 the passionate1 strenuous1 mystical resignation which ,platonism brought into ,christianity at the dawn of the ,renaissance1 and hope1 born of the quickened fervour and resolution of romantic love4 ,in two notable subjects ,rossetti deals with incidents recorded by ,dante of himself after the death of ,beatrice4 ,in a early water-colour of singular dignity and elevation of feeling1 he celebrates 8,the ,anniversary of the ,death of ,beatrice40 8,on that day10 says ,dante in the 8,vita ,nuova10 8which completed the year since my lady had been made of the citizens of eternal life1 ,i was sitting in a place apart1 where1 remembering me of her1 ,i was drawing an angel upon certain tablets2 and as ,i drew1 ,i turned my eyes1 and saw beside me persons to whom it was fitting to do honour1 and who were looking at what ,i did3 and according as it was told me afterwards1 they had been there awhile before ,i perceived them4 ,then ,i arose for salutation and said1 #8,another was present with me4'0 ,the poet1 kneeling at a window overlooking the ,arno1 absorbed in his memorial task1 has suddenly become conscious of his visitors1 and is overwhelmed with delicate pride and shame4 8,,our ,,lady ,,of ,,pity40 ,from an unfinished study4 ,by permission of the ,corporation of ,birmingham4 ,illustration ,again1 among the latest of ,rossetti's unfinished works1 we have the illustration of another passage in the 8,vita ,nuova10 telling of ,dante's mourning for his lady's death4 8,la ,donna della ,finestra0 78,the ,lady of the ,window071 better known as 8,our ,lady of ,pity10 represents the beautiful woman who looked down on ,dante from a window when1 as he passed weeping through the streets1 and fearing lest the passers-by should mock him1 he glanced up1 craving for some sign of sympathy1 and was consoled by her calm and pitying gaze4 ,sketches for this design were made in several media1 but the head in the unfinished painting at ,birmingham is the most perfect of the series1 and in fact ranks among the finest of the female heads in all ,rossetti's single-figure pictures4 ,the artist has caught with rare felicity the expression so acutely described by the poet3 8,whereupon she1 after a pitying sigh1 ,her eyes directed towards me with that look ,a mother casts on a delirious child40 ,all the depth1 all the tenderness1 all the heroic strength of a divine sorrow that sees the end of sorrow1 shines in this full-souled face4 ,it is the ideal of the highest womanhood1 and indeed of the highest humanity2 of the love that has attained to be godlike1 redeeming the world by infinite compassion2 a love that 8hopeth all things and endureth all things10 and in whose steadfast courage lies the conquering principle of the life to be4 ,it is the companion picture--and in some respects it is a nobler1 healthier version--of 8,the ,blessed ,damozel10 leaning from the bar of heaven to console the mourner on the earth below4 ,the love that can so take hold of immortality1 bring comfort even from the gates of death1 and bridge over1 by the sweet persistence of its ministry1 by the passionate reality of its inspiration1 the gulf between the physical and the spiritual world1 is the love which of old was the source of the 8,vita ,nuova10 and which springs anew in our own age through 8,our ,lady of ,pity0 and 8,the ,blessed ,damozel40 ,in such designs ,rossetti has restored to us all that was best in the medival thought of womanhood1--adding the 8ever-motherly0 to the 8ever-womanly0 of the ,hellenic model1 and the ,divine ,motherhood to the ,divine ,fatherhood of the ,christian ideal2 and enriched it with the whole wealth of psycho-sensuous beauty brought over from the region of romance4 ,and in this consummation is justified the verdict of ,ruskin3 that 8,rossetti was the chief intellectual force in the establishment of the modern romantic school in ,england40 ----- ,footnote #i3 ,william ,tirebuck3 8,d4,g4 ,rossetti2 his work and influence40 ,footnote #aj3 ,gabriel ,sarrazin3 8,potes ,modernes d',angleterre40 ,footnote #aa3 ,rossetti's sonnet1 8,found40 ,footnote #ab3 ,rev4 ,p4,f4 ,forsyth3 8,religion in ,recent ,art40 ,footnote #ac3 ,rossetti's sonnet1 8,pandora40 ,footnote #ad3 ,walter ,pater1 8,the ,renaissance3 ,studies of ,art and ,poetry40 ,,chapter ,,viii4 ,,the ,,poetry ,,of ,,dante ,,rossetti4 ,the 8,pre-,raphaelite0 in ,literature--,the ,complexity of ,talent in an ,age of ,re-birth--,the ,restoration of ,romance in ,england--,the ,latin and the ,saxon in ,rossetti--,latin ,diction for the ,sonnets as ,reflective ,poetry--,saxon ,diction for the ,ballads as ,dramatic ,poetry--8,the ,house of ,life0--,treatment of ,romantic ,love--,illustrations of ,sonnet ,structure--,miscellaneous ,lyrics--8,the ,portrait10 8,the ,stream's ,secret10 8,dante at ,verona10 8,the ,staff and ,scrip0--,the ,ballads--8,the ,white ,ship10 8,the ,king's ,tragedy10 8,sister ,helen10 8,rose ,mary10 8,the ,bride's ,prelude10 8,the ,blessed ,damozel0--8,a ,last ,confession0--8,jenny0-- ,relation of ,rossetti's ,poetry to his ,painting4 ,the poetry of ,dante ,gabriel ,rossetti lies apart from the main current of contemporary verse1 both in its highly specialized quality of thought and language1 and in the conditions and circumstances of its production4 ,inasmuch as he followed openly the profession of a painter1 pursuing poetry1 for the most part1 as a recreative rather than a principal study 7though never with less seriousness than his accepted vocation71 and publishing his first volume of original poems in his forty-second year1 he is exempt to some extent from the standards of criticism applied to him whose creative energies are concentrated in the field of literature4 ,whether ,rossetti's genius1 as he himself believed1 found its highest and most perfect embodiment in poetry rather than in painting1--whether the essential qualities of his art will be more evident to posterity in the modest volume of his collected poems than in the pictures now dispersed through ,england and ,america--is still an open question4 ,it may1 however1 be admitted that his mastery of the verbal medium was almost always more complete1 his discipline in metrical structure more thorough1 and his natural habit of diction more facile1 than any skill which he attained in brush and pencil4 ,to estimate his final influence upon contemporary thought in the one realm as against the other is yet more difficult than to assess the relative merit of his actual work in either sphere3 so intimately was the poet incarnate in the painter2 so largely did the painter's vision inspire and dominate the poet4 ,but it would be a poor analysis that should divide too finely the interwoven threads of a radiant and many-coloured genius4 ,in an age of intellectual re-birth1 of artistic and social revolution1 the re- adjustment of forces and functions in the ethical and sthetical realms is apt to produce a strange complexity of talent1 not always beneficial to a single art1 not always well for the diversely endowed artist1 but often tending to the unification of many activities into one effective stream of purpose1 moved by the impulse that infused the nation with a ,time-,spirit potent for immortal things4 ,such a combination of talent in single personalities1 in a period of rare national fertility in scholarship and creative power1 reveals at the same time the basic unity of the sthetic life and its inseparable interdependence with the moral ideal4 ,michaelangelo1 at the zenith of the ,italian ,renaissance1 standing at the parting of the ways1 gathered up1 as it seemed1 the several arts into his representative genius1 and left to the land that was soon to swamp the sthetic spirit in the mire of a materialistic decadence the threefold heritage of his painting1 his sculpture1 and his song4 ,rossetti1 at the zenith of the ,english ,renaissance1 drew a twofold inspiration from the struggle of the modern world1 and left the double dower of painting and of poetry1 to urge the coming generation to the higher issues of fine art1 or to stand1 the witness of rejected ideals to ages recalcitrant to the vision and the impulse of to-day4 ,for the first greatness of ,rossetti's poetry is that it assumes for ever the reality and the immanence of a spiritual--and more--a moral world4 ,not that he ever misuses the vehicles of art as tools of philosophy1 or stoops to a didactic application of sthetic truth4 ,but his art is all moral 7as ,mr4 ,ruskin would put it7 because it is all fine art4 ,and the moral purpose of art is the better secured when art is trusted to effect that purpose in its own way4 ,the consciously didactic poet is less sure to mould the will and character of a people1 than he the form and substance of whose utterance are so perfected in truth and virility of thought1 in majesty and grace of speech1 as to be a fit oblation to his own ideal4 ,not 8how can ,i best teach others and influence them aright80 but 8how can ,i best express the highest things ,i know and feel80 is the self-examination of the true artist4 ,rossetti's poetry is self- expressive1 self-revealing to the very heart's core4 ,the ultimate test of poetry is not 8what did this man intend to teach us80 but 8of what sort is the manhood here revealed8 what are the visions by which it lived8 what the ideals in which it grew8 ,is such a soul's experience wide1 deep1 typical1 and profitable to the rest of mankind80 ,in applying such a test to the writings of ,rossetti1 it is necessary to distinguish between what may be roughly termed the 8personal0 and the 8impersonal0 poems4 ,in the one class1 supremely exemplified by the 8,house of ,life0 sonnets1 but including also 8,dante at ,verona10 8,the ,stream's ,secret10 8,the ,portrait10 and many of the shorter lyrics1 the personal note of love or grief1 of memory or hope1 is wholly dominant2 the poet's soul is absorbed with its individual being1 and sees in all the life around him the illustration and interpretation of his own4 ,in the other class1 in the great romantic ballads1 in 8,rose ,mary0 and 8,the ,blessed ,damozel10 in 8,the ,white ,ship0 and 8,the ,king's ,tragedy10 in 8,the ,bride's ,prelude0 and 8,sister ,helen10 the imagination takes a higher and a larger range2 the one soul interprets others1 waiting not to be interpreted4 ,the art becomes impersonal in this sense only--that the thought of self is merged in the full and immense life of humanity1 laying hold of the universal consciousness through its own initiative experience2 the heart beats with the world's heart1 shares its eternal struggles1 contributes to its eternal growth2 and the spirit knows itself one fragment of an infinite whole4 ,in such a sphere the art remains the more vitally personal1 in that the poet brings the mysteries of existence1 the abiding problems and realities of the conscious world1 to the touchstone1 as it were1 of his own spirit1 and submits himself thereby to the more crucial test1--of how he can interpret humanity to man1 and make more clear the knowledge1 more possible the realization1 of his highest ideals4 ,with this general division of the subject-matter of ,rossetti's poetry1 the classification of its metrical cast and forms of diction will be singularly parallel4 ,most of his finest compositions might be distinguished as purely ,saxon or pre-eminently ,latin poems2 and it is notable that the more intimately subjective and analytic the thought within1 the more persistently does it assume the ,latin garb2 while as the imagination ranges from the introspection of the hyper-conscious self1 and finds1 on the heights of common human feeling and aspiration1 a larger and a freer air1 the mode passes into the more keen and rarified ,saxon speech4 ,no other ,english poet has resolved the breadth and simplicity of the ,gothic1 and the depth and intensity of the ,italian habit of expression1 into such distinctive poetic vehicles4 ,but at the same time few have blended the diverse elements of the modern ,english tongue into the harmony and sonority with which ,rossetti's music thrills when he tempers the sharper ,saxon with a deep undertone of polysyllabic song2 or stirs the languorous pulses of a sonnet with some swift cadence of familiar words4 ,he had the finest perception of national and racial properties of form and rhythm2 and discerning the characteristics of the poetry of action in the literature of the north1 and the poetry of reflection in the literature of the south1 he cast his great historical lyrics in the highest narrative--that is to say1 the ballad form2 and chose the sonnet--the most remote1 chastened1 and exclusive vehicle--for the meditative1 and yet sensuous1 self-delineative love-poetry4 ,these broad generalizations1 however1 cannot be closely pressed upon the entire sequence of ,rossetti's poems4 ,the exigencies of the ,english language alone elude their literal application4 ,they will rather serve to illustrate the duality of his endowments1 and the singular power of his genius both to conserve and specialize the characteristics of his ,italian heritage1 and also to waive them in the ,saxon mode as utterly as though the latter were more native to his tongue4 ,nor does such a superficial distinction affect the spiritual qualities which pervade ,rossetti's poetry as a whole4 ,from first to last1 in dramatic description or narrative1 in sonnet-argument or meditative questioning1 his verse remains full-charged with the very essence of romance4 ,as a poet1 he is neither less nor more ,pre-,raphaelite than as a painter4 ,the vivid and intense simplicity of his ,saxon diction1 the verbal lightnings of his ballad-style1 seem to correspond with the tone and method of his water-colour painting1 and the more laboured splendour of the sonnets with the properties of his work in oils4 ,nor is it difficult to detect an analogy between that stage of his painting in which the pristine lucidity of expression was partially lost in the painful tension of his later thought1 and the tendency of some few of his sonnets towards decadence into the over-laborious and the obscure4 ,yet if by 8,pre-,raphaelite0 we understand that fusion of the nave mysticism of romance with austere ,platonic ,hellenism which we discern in the best ,renaissance art1 ,rossetti never falls in spirit from that standard of beauty and truth2 and rarely lapses1 through the very richness and fecundity of the language at his command1 into the redundant verbiage towards which his sensuous imagery was easily led4 ,it has remained for a brother-poet of the romantic revival to cultivate a more marvellous dexterity of rhyme and rhythm1 and to develop the technical resources of our language to the utmost limits of intelligible song4 ,the lyrics of ,mr4 ,swinburne1 like the superb decorative extravagances of the later ,renaissance1 represent that culmination of mastery over the forms of expression wherein to-day1 as of yore1 the purity of the thought is lost in the splendour of the setting1 and poetic power wastes itself in a magic facility of verse4 ,the poetry of ,rossetti1 modern as it is in its passionate grasp of human interests1 its deep insight into present and perpetual things1 links itself nevertheless to an ,english past2 takes up1 as it were1 the dropped threads of ,elizabethan glory2 re-inspires the circling breath of life which passed round ,europe in the fifteenth century1 kindling ,england from the fires of re-awakened ,italy in the golden age of song4 ,it has already been pointed out by one of ,rossetti's biographers that 8the malign influence over our literature in post-,shakespearean times has been ,french40 ,it was reserved for a second ,renaissance1 heralded by ,chatterton and ,blake1 led by ,shelley1 ,keats1 and ,coleridge1 and culminated by ,dante ,rossetti1 to blot out two centuries of foreign tradition and control1 and take us back to the broad simplicity and dignity of ,shakespeare's ,england4 ,our reiteration1 therefore1 of the term 8,pre-,raphaelite0 in approaching ,rossetti's work as a poet1 leads us to expect1 not mysticism merely1 but a certain robust sensuousness1 as of ,pagan origin1 in his interpretation of life and destiny4 ,the romantic temper in its highest manifestations1 absorbing and transfiguring1 rather than conflicting with1 the classic ideals1 implies much more than receptivity to newer beauty and truth4 ,it has a moral basis and an intellectual range3 it apprehends the spiritual world as something closely bound up with familiar things3 it finds the human soul striving for expression through material forms3 it recognizes the divine possibilities of individual and social life1 the force and responsibility of personal character1 and the solemnity of the choice between good and evil daily made by man4 ,but the controversy excited by ,rossetti's pictures has been neither more intemperate nor more significant than that which has raged around his poems2--interpreted by one section of his critics as a pan of sensuality and materialism1 by another as the most spiritual and chastened love- poetry of the age4 ,the laureate of the ,pre-,raphaelite ,brotherhood indeed summed up1 in what now affords but one volume of original verse1 the inmost vicissitudes of a spirit so rare and rich of vision as to transcend at once the canons of conventional experience4 ,but the personal note1 in the self-delineative poems1 is struck with a peculiar dignity of reserve2 and even while the most sacred depths of individual consciousness are laid bare1 the actual ego is never intruded upon the surface of the speech1--never portrays directly its own character1 seldom describes its own sensations as ,byron or ,shelley would2 but veils itself1 even in the profusion of luminous imagery and searching analysis of thought and sense4 ,the eternal mysteries and sanctities of sexual love1 conceived in its highest aspects and known as a revelation and a sacrament1 afford the theme of nearly all ,rossetti's autobiographic poetry4 ,the conditions of its production were ordained by the stern fate that linked him afar off to ,dante among his countrymen1 and near at hand to two brother-mourners among minor ,english bards--,james ,thomson and ,philip ,bourke ,marston--in the sad fraternity of poets whom death has prematurely robbed of the beloved object that once inspired their song4 ,the exalted spirituality which marks ,rossetti's treatment of this theme was doubtless largely due to the influence of ,dante1 and especially to the fruitful inspiration and discipline of the great literary task of his youth--the translation of the 8,vita ,nuova0 and kindred examples of the early ,italian poets--than which ,rossetti could have hardly found a better preparation for his work that was to come4 ,into his great sonnet-sequence1 8,the ,house of ,life10 ,rossetti poured the full passion of his mystic love1--partially inherent in his own sensuous1 imaginative1 and introspective nature1 partially instilled at the feet of ,dante2 and learned--a bitter and a costly lesson--at the school of experience also2 fraught with inestimable joy and sorrow to his own soul4 8,at an age10 says one writing of that hard probation1 8when most men have outlived the romances of their youth1 ,rossetti was laying1 in #8,the ,house of ,life1' the foundations of a new school of love-poetry40 ,he was in fact re-creating the sthetic life of a nation2 restoring to it1 through the alembic of medival and ,renaissance thought1 the lost glory of all that was abidingly precious in the ,platonic world4 ,for in this wondrous cycle of sonnets is re-coined the whole language of ideal love4 ,from the last echo of the 8,vita ,nuova0 it takes up the same pure strain1 and sings again the song of ,dante for the ,blessed ,beatrice2 hymning the very apotheosis of spiritual passion1 and harmonizing once more in ,english poetry the intellectual with the sensuous world4 ,never1 in the superb visions of 8,the ,house of ,life0--in which the soul of man is pictured sojourning awhile during its solemn and fateful passage through eternity--never does the physical love become the stumbling-block to the spiritual1 but always the key to it4 ,the 8body's beauty0 is only precious as the witness of the 8soul's beauty20 the physical bond is nothing if not the symbol of a spiritual affinity1 a sacred kinship1 fore-ordained1 if not eternal1 sealed in ,heaven and consecrated to the divinest purposes2 the sensuous rapture is but a symbolic worship1--8the outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace0 which to reject or betray is to profane the inmost sanctuary of the ,god of ,love3 8,even so1 when first ,i saw you1 seemed it1 love1 ,that among souls allied to mine was yet ,one nearer kindred than life hinted of4 ,o born with me somewhere that men forget1 ,and though in years of sight and sound unmet1 ,known for my soul's birth-partner well enough60 ,love the revealer of unseen verities1 the binder of invisible bonds2 ,love the deliverer from material trammels1 the opener of the gate of life2 these are to him the gracious manifestations of the same deity3 8,o what from thee the grace1 to me the prize1 ,and what to ,love the glory1--when the whole ,of the deep stair thou tread'st to the dim shoal ,and weary water of the place of sighs1 ,and there dost work deliverance1 as thine eyes ,draw up my prisoned spirit to thy soul60 ,in the large atmosphere of such a worship1 seeing all things1 as we have said1 sub specie eternitatis1 the poet portrays the sweetest intimacies of communion1 soul with soul2 questioning1 recording1 comparing from time to time the recurring phases of joy and hope1 memory and regret4 8,when do ,i see thee most80 he asks in the exquisite sonnet called 8,lovesight03 8,when do ,i see thee most1 beloved one8 ,when in the light the spirits of mine eyes ,before thy face1 their altar1 solemnize ,the worship of that love through thee made known8 ,or when in the dusk hours1 7we two alone17 ,close-kissed and eloquent of still replies ,thy twilight-hidden glimmering visage lies1 ,and my soul only sees thy soul its own80 8,what of her glass without her80 he cries again after the great bereavement which has removed the visible presence of the beloved3 8,what of her glass without her8 ,the blank grey ,there where the pool is blind of the moon's face4 ,her dress without her8 ,the tossed empty space ,of cloud-rack whence the moon has passed away4 ,her paths without her8 ,day's appointed sway ,usurped by desolate night4 ,her pillowed place ,without her8 ,tears1 ah me6 for love's good grace1 ,and cold forgetfulness of night or day40 ,and with what fine insight does ,rossetti pierce the tender subtleties of the woman's responsive heart6 ,has any other ,english poet discerned so well that retrospective instinct which clings to the early semblances of pure and non-sexual love8 --8,she loves him1 for her infinite soul is love4 99 99 99 99 99 99 ,with wifely breast to breast ,and circling arms1 she welcomes all command ,of love1--her soul to answering ardours fanned3 ,yet as morn springs or twilight sinks to rest1 ,ah6 who shall say she deems not loveliest ,the hour of sisterly sweet hand-in-hand80 ,in that hint lies the acknowledgment of the ,platonic ideal1--that whatever dignifies and ennobles the affections must lie not in the outward conditions but within2 that the senses are but the accessories of ,love2 the temporary channels1 not the eternal stream4 ,and this insistence on the spiritual aspects of passion affects the whole tone and temper of ,rossetti's poetry2 raising it1 in moments of intense feeling1 almost to the mystic exaltation of a ,pascal1 and transfiguring all the world of consciousness by the knowledge and memory of an overmastering love4 ,from the first to the last of the hundred sonnets we are shown steadfastly the outlook upon life of one to whom all life has been sanctified by that supreme experience4 8,who can read #8,the ,house of ,life'0 7says ,mr4 ,f4,w4,h4 ,myers in his essay on 8,rossetti and the ,religion of ,beauty0#ae7 8and not feel that this poet has known love as love can be1 not an enjoyment only or a triumph1 but a worship and a regeneration80 ,in such a spirit does the poet take account of time and opportunity1 and recognize the solemnities of passing hour4 ,life has become more sacred1 the man more responsible1 the imperative forces of character and destiny more urgent than before4 ,the sense of personal possibilities and shortcomings weighs upon him4 8,lost days0 and wasted chances oppress his mind4 ,the actualities of evil in his own sphere of being look darker in the face of the recognized good3 8,the lost days of my life until to-day1 ,what were they1 could ,i see them on the street ,lie as they fell8 ,would they be ears of wheat ,sown once for food but trodden into clay8 ,or golden coins squandered and still to pay8 ,or drops of blood dabbling the guilty feet8 ,or such spilt water as in dreams must cheat ,the throats of men in ,hell1 athirst alway8 ,i do not see them here1 but after death ,god knows ,i know the faces ,i shall see1 ,each one a murdered self1 with low last breath4 #8,i am thyself1--what hast thou done to me8' #8,and ,i--and ,i--thyself1' 7lo6 each one saith17 #8,and thou thyself to all eternity6'0 ,and in a similar strain the poet prays3 8,o ,lord of work and peace6 ,o ,lord of life6 ,o ,lord1 the awful ,lord of will6 though late1 ,even yet renew this soul with duteous breath3 ,that when the peace is garnered in from strife1 ,the work retrieved1 the will regenerate1 ,this soul may see thy face1 ,o ,lord of death60 ,this sense of destiny it is1 this keen perception--characteristic of all true romance--of the reality of the spiritual world1 the transiency of earthly joys and the insufficiency of external things1 that gives the persistent undertone of melancholy to ,rossetti's love-sonnets1 and more or less1 indeed1 to all his poetry4 ,he does not1 perhaps1 sustain the peculiar minor key which the resigned and pensive fatalism of ,william ,morris imparts4 ,his grasp of fate is firmer1 and with all his despair and doubt and grief he keeps a greater dignity of front than any of his surviving brother-poets4 ,but his pessimism1 if it must be called so1 had its source in a hyper-sensitive and self-conscious personality1 and was drawn1 as one has said of ,michaelangelo1 from 8the struggle of a strong nature to attune itself40 ,it is an absorbing struggle1 on which to look with reverent reserve2 carried on within the sorely-shaken spaces of a spirit too proud to vent itself1 as ,swinburne's1 in a broad and vigorous iconoclasm2 too isolated to find relief1 as the poet of 8,the ,earthly ,paradise0 was presently to do1 in the vanguard of a social revolution promising the heaven of his dreams4 ,nor could ,rossetti's wayward heart find permanent rest in the fervid religious faith which sustained the poetess of the ,pre-,raphaelite movement--his sister1 ,miss ,christina ,rossetti4 ,yet the sadness that tinges ,rossetti's verse is nearly always of a kind that chastens without enervating1 and strengthens while it subdues4 ,intimately personal and subtly introspective as it is1 it lifts us on to the highest planes of living poetry4 ,we feel that the writer has learnt that first great lesson which indeed ,rossetti himself has urged in these sonnets1-- 8,by thine own tears thy song must tears beget1 ,o ,singer60 ,and by that baptism of tears he rises to the rank of those whose individual loss and grief have blessed the world1 as the death of ,edward ,king blessed it in ,milton's 8,lycidas10 and in far greater measure the death of ,arthur ,hallam blessed it in ,tennyson's 8,in ,memoriam40 ,for while sometimes the expression of personal pain may be put into such perfect art as to afford in its very poignancy of feeling a sort of sthetic consolation1 the test of the highest poetic grief is that it shall lose the smart of personal injury in a strong sense of brotherhood with fellow-sufferers1 and shall translate the revolt against individual pain into a wide compassion with the sorrows of a nation or of all humanity4 ,nor can we avoid comparison of 8,the ,house of ,life0 with the two great kindred cycles of love-sonnets in the ,english language1--the sonnets of ,shakespeare1 and ,mrs4 ,browning's 8,sonnets from the ,portuguese20 the one celebrating a hopeless and desolating passion1 the other a fortunate and consummated love4 ,rossetti touches both these precedents1 in that he knew alike the depths and heights1 the hell and heaven1 of that passion of which the poets say1-- 8,all other pleasures are not worth its pain40 ,he enjoyed happiness1 and suffered despair1 not merely in the outward circumstances of his love1 but in a more subtle and irretrievable way4 ,the fallacy dies hard1 that leads us to imagine that the unvaryingly sad and gloomy natures are the supreme sufferers of the world4 ,on the contrary1 the acuteness of pain is measured by its victim's capacity for mirth4 ,and there are some natures so finely organized1 so highly-strung1 that even joy is almost painful to them4 ,they cannot lose themselves in a moment's rapture1 but are beset with contrasts behind and before2 are haunted with the cost of every ecstasy1 and rarely learn that calm and self-possessing wisdom which is the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil1 and through which may come at last1 in many channels of temperament1 in many forms of faith and duty1 the power to subdue the evil to the good4 ,such were ,shelley and ,keats1 ,leopardi and ,heine1 ,james ,thomson and ,philip ,bourke ,marston3 such also was ,dante ,gabriel ,rossetti4 ,it would be superfluous to dwell at length on the extraordinary richness of ,rossetti's metaphor and simile4 ,the imagery in the 8,house of ,life0 is for the most part sensuous1 fervid1 and almost tropical in colour and atmosphere4 ,here are a crowd of variously portentous spirits1-- 444 8,fame1 whose loud wings fan the ashen ,past ,to signal fires20 444 8,song1 whose hair ,blew like a flame and blossomed like a wreath20 444 8,love1 smiling to receive ,along his eddying plumes the auroral wind20 ,and-- 444 8,life herself1 the spirit's friend and love1 ,even still as ,spring's authentic harbinger ,glows with fresh hours for hope to glorify2 ,though pale she lay when in the winter grove ,her funeral flowers were snowflakes shed on her ,and the red wings of frost-fire rent the sky40 ,we follow the soul of the lover-- 444 8where wan water trembles in the grove1 ,and the wan moon is all the light thereof10 444 8o'er the sea of love's tumultuous trance10 8,upon the devious coverts of dismay0 across 8death's haggard hills02 among 8,shadows and shoals that edge eternity10 and through 444 8that last ,wild pageant of the accumulated past ,that clangs and flashes for a drowning man40 ,the superb climax just quoted terminates one of the most vivid and haunting of the 8,house of ,life0 series1--8,the ,soul's ,sphere10-- illustrative of the vast range of consciousness known to one 8,who1 sleepless1 hath 444 anguished to appease ,tragical shadow's realm of sound and sight ,conjectured in the lamentable night10 and probes the memory for images whose calm splendour may bring forgetfulness of self4 ,the subject is that of ,wordsworth's well-known sonnet1 8,a flock of sheep that leisurely pass by20 and the contrast between the visions conjured up by the two very diverse poets exactly illustrates the difference of temperament which set them at opposite poetic poles4 ,the mind of ,wordsworth rests in the contemplation of familiar things1 gains peace in the common incidents of pastoral life1 loves ,nature best in her ordinary moods1 and seeks always the homeliest of consolations1 the most universal joys4 ,the mind of ,rossetti craves ever for the superlative1 the exceptional1 the intense1 and can find no ease in anything very simple and quiet4 ,the value of a poet's verdict on his own poems is not always to be measured by his critical faculty when applied to general literature4 ,the friends of ,rossetti have been unanimous in his praise as a critic both of prose and of poetry1 though his desultory reading and vehemence of judgment led him sometimes into extravagances of worship or condemnation1 and blunted his discrimination of relative merits in divergent schools4 ,hence his persistent and quite explicable antipathy to ,wordsworth1 and his exaggerated estimate of ,chatterton in later life4 ,but in his criticism of his own work it is inevitable that a poet should be somewhat biassed by associations and memories bearing upon its production4 ,it is difficult to take seriously ,rossetti's admission to the indiscreet admirer of one of his shorter poems1--8,you are right3 #8,the ,cloud ,confines' is my very best thing40 ,lyrically unimpeachable indeed it is1 though not more so than the exquisite 8,autumn ,song10 8,a ,new ,year's ,burden10 8,insomnia10 8,three ,shadows10 or 8,sunset ,wings20 and therefore are we fain to take ,rossetti's judgment as based largely on technical considerations when1 in selecting his own favourites from among the 8,house of ,life0 series1 he adds to the noble sonnet 8,lost ,days0 7already quoted7 the less impassioned but more coherent and melodious 8,still-born ,love10 8,the ,one ,hope10 and 8,known in ,vain40 ,these certainly excel in some of the highest qualities of the sonnet form-- unity of idea1 and the steady set of the rhythmic flow and ebb in motive and application2 though in none of these does the sestet conform to the pure ,guittonian model on three-rhyme-sounds1 blending the first and fourth1 second and fifth1 and third and sixth lines in a double tercet1 as it does with signal success in 8,lost on ,both ,sides10 8,the ,portrait10 and 8,hope ,overtaken20 and in only one out of his chosen four 78,the ,one ,hope07 does ,rossetti attain what he personally preferred as the most perfect order of sestet rhymes1 based upon two terminal sounds1 and rhyming the first1 fourth1 and fifth lines against the second1 third1 and sixth2 thus opening the sestet with a quatrain harmonizing in structure with the octet above1 and yet avoiding the rhymed couplet at the close which would remove the whole poem from the ,italian mould in which1 despite many irregularities1 nearly all ,rossetti's sonnets are cast4 ,the sestet of 8,lost ,days0 7like several others in the series7 exemplifies what is generally held to be the best arrangement of the two-rhymed sestet in the ,guittonian form1--that in which the first1 third1 and fifth terminals chime against the second1 fourth1 and sixth4 ,admirable as these four sonnets are1 however1 in clarity of thought and cumulative power1 it is doubtful whether they should rank higher1 from the broadest standards of poetry1 than 8,lost on ,both ,sides10 8,lovesight10 8,mid-rapture10 or 8,supreme ,surrender20 in all of which the gathering force of the motive sweeps in a fine torrent--mournful1 searching1 tender1 or triumphant--to its eddying close1 and the best tribute to the metrical art of each is that it conveys so perfectly the inmost fulness of the thought4 ,frequently1 indeed1 ,rossetti ends a sonnet with a rhymed couplet on a new terminal sound1 following a ,guittonian quatrain1 as in 8,mid-,rapture10 8,true ,woman10 8,her ,heaven10 and 8,the ,song-,throe20 or in some cases following a ,shakespearean quatrain after a ,guittonian octet1 as1 for instance1 in 8,venus ,victrix0 and 8,the ,love-,moon40 ,very rarely does he compose a whole sonnet in the ,shakespearean measure1 namely1 that in which the two rhyme-sounds of the doubled-quatrained octave occur in alternate lines1 and the former of them is carried forward with a new rhyme for the similarly alternated quatrain of a sestet clenched with a rhyming couplet on another note1 as in 8,willow-,wood0 7,no4 ,,iii474 ,the question of the legitimacy of a rhymed couplet at the close of anything but a wholly ,shakespearean sonnet has been much debated by conflicting authorities on poetic form4 ,the sonnet is at once the most elastic and the most arbitrary of vehicles for the concise embodiment of a single thought and its accessory similes4 ,from the scholar's point of view1 no indiscriminate grafting of one essentially national and historic growth of form upon another is theoretically defensible4 ,but1 since no ,european language is of exclusive stock1 the fusion of ,latin and ,saxon speech in the varied beauty of modern ,english seems hardly less anachronistic than the adaptation of traditional metres to the new requirements of the poetic faculties of the age4 ,akin to the 8,house of ,life0 in spirit and substance is 8,the ,portrait20 a reminiscence1 after the death of the loved model1 of hours which saw the painting of the picture on a stormy summer day4 ,here the sonnet's long- drawn strain gives place to a quicker measure3 8,but when that hour my soul won strength ,for words whose silence wastes and kills1 ,dull raindrops smote us1 and at length ,thundered the heat within the hills4 ,that eve ,i spoke those words again ,beside the pelted window-pane2 ,and there she hearkened what ,i said1 ,with under-glances that surveyed ,the empty pastures blind with rain4 99 99 99 99 99 99 8,last night at last ,i could have slept1 ,and yet delayed my sleep till dawn1 ,still wandering4 ,then it was ,i wept3 ,for unawares ,i came upon ,those glades where once she walked with me4 ,and as ,i stood there suddenly1 ,all wan with traversing the night1 ,upon the desolate verge of light ,yearned loud the iron-bosomed sea40 ,in 8,the ,stream's ,secret0 the verse assumes a still more lyrical rhythm1 as the poet communes with the familiar waters concerning his lost love1 and desires-- 8,the wind-stirred robe of roseate grey ,and rose-crown of the hour that leads the day ,when we shall meet once more10 4 4 4 4 4 4 8,as on the unmeasured height of ,love's control ,the lustral fires are lit40 ,the flow of the monologue gleams with such images as these3 8,and on the waste uncoloured wold ,the visible burthen of the sun grown cold1 ,and the moon's labouring gaze20 or-- 8,the soul hears the night's disconsolate cry1 ,and feels the branches1 wringing wet1 ,cast on its brow1 that may not once forget1 ,blind tears from the blind sky40 ,in 8,dante at ,verona0 ,rossetti portrays in a somewhat diffuse and irregular string of descriptive stanzas1 some incidents1 historic and imaginary1 but always congruous with our best ideals of ,dante1--of his exile from ,florence and his sojourn at the ,court of ,verona after the death of ,beatrice4 ,the poem lacks balance and unity of plan1 but abounds in passages of exquisite feeling1 wrought through the keen vision of those significant accessories that make a great1 if fragmentary picture of the commanding personality so near akin in many aspects to his modern namesake and disciple1 yet strangely removed from him in temperament and character4 ,how far in either case the lover's worship was fulfilled and consummated in a single earthly embodiment of the ideal1 or whether such a brief apparent gain served but to feed the fires of the insatiable idealism behind it1 is hardly for the historian to estimate4 ,but whatever the actual channels found by the dominant passion of their poetry1 however diverse the conditions under which it sought its outlet towards the infinite sea1 both ,dante and ,rossetti may be counted with the isolated band of dreamers1 who1 as ,shelley once said aptly of himself1 8are always in love with something or other2 their error consists in seeking in a mortal image the likeness of what is1 perhaps1 eternal40 ,they 8have loved ,antigone before they visited this earth1 and are ever demanding of life more than it can give40 ,on such a pilgrimage the sombre figure of 8,dante at ,verona0 passes before us1 through the palaces and gardens of ,can ,grande della ,scala1 ever remote1 self-absorbed1 austere2 8with set brows lordlier than a frown20 and we are shown his vigils1 his spiritual isolation among the gross luxuries and corruptions of the table1 the chamber1 and the hall2 and how his presence half won1 half awed the women of the court2 8,and when the music had its sign ,to breathe upon them for more ease ,sometimes he turned and bade it cease40 ,and he who followed steadfastly the inward vision of the lost ,beatrice1 to be regained in ,paradise1 cherished with the more integrity his love for the city of ,beatrice1--,florence1 that 8sat solitary0 when ,beatrice died1 and now seemed lost also4 ,and he answered them that would win back the exiled patriot-poet1-- 8,that since no gate led1 by ,god's will1 ,to ,florence1 but the one whereat ,the priests and money-changers sat1 ,he still would wander2 for that still1 ,even through the body's prison-bars ,his soul possessed the sun and stars40 ,here again is struck the keynote of romance1 8the note of resistance and defiance0 of external trammels and material bonds2 the note of spiritual courage which can pierce through the finite to the infinite life1 and 8possess0 what this world cannot remove or bestow4 ,and in this high strain the personal accent1 the autobiographic undertone1 loses itself in a loftier music1 and 8,dante at ,verona0 is brought within measurable distance of ,rossetti's finest work--his great romantic ballads1 8,rose ,mary10 8,the ,white ,ship10 8,the ,king's ,tragedy10 8,sister ,helen10 8,the ,bride's ,prelude10 8,the ,staff and ,scrip10 and 8,the ,blessed ,damozel40 8,the ,staff and ,scrip10 perhaps1 ranks next above 8,dante at ,verona10 to which it links itself as a kind of companion poem2 celebrating the life- long faithfulness of a lady to her knight-errant1 perished in defence of her cause4 ,coming as a pilgrim through her wasted lands1 the hero seeks the queen in her dim palace1 where1-- 8,the sweetness sickened her ,of musk and myrrh10 and dedicates himself to the redemption of the country from her foe4 8,she sent him a sharp sword1 whose belt ,about his body there ,as sweet as her own arms he felt4 ,he kissed its blade1 all bare1 ,instead of her40 ,the knight wins in the battle1 but dies in the victory1 and his body is brought to the queen4 8#8,uncover ye his face1' she said4 #8,o changed in little space6' ,she cried2 #8,o pale that was so red6 ,o ,god1 ,o ,god of grace6 ,cover his face4' 8,his sword was broken in his hand ,where he had kissed the blade4 #8,o soft steel that could not withstand6 ,o my hard heart unstayed1 ,that prayed and prayed6'0 ,the exaltation of spirit is more sustained1 the diction more finely distilled1 the air clearer1 the whole balance and setting of the narrative more perfect than in 8,dante at ,verona40 ,the passion of chivalric love1 worship1 heroism1 loyalty1 burns at a white-heat from the first line to the last4 ,every phrase is purged1 chastened1 and full- charged2 and flies swiftly with its portentous burden of meaning straight to the mark4 ,it breathes the very soul of that romantic chivalry to which the modern world is turning with a shaken conscience and a regenerate will2 impelled to a larger application of its principles than the golden ages knew4 ,the glory of true knighthood in its championship of the weak1 its resistance of tyranny1 its heroic self-sacrifice1 its contempt of ease1 its defiance of pain1 its devotion to principle1 is as yet a tardy sunrise brokenly discerned through the long reaches of historic years2 an unsteady dawn of world-light clouded by men's lust of private power2 a scant and partial gleam of what it must involve for the social life to be4 8,the ,white ,ship0 and 8,the ,king's ,tragedy0 stand together as ,rossetti's sole and supreme achievements in the realm of historical romance4 ,they stand1 in fact1 alone in conception and treatment among modern ,english ballads3 unequalled even by ,tennyson's 8,revenge10 and crowning the lyric with something almost of the epic quality4 ,the theme of 8,the ,white ,ship0 is found in the familiar story of ,henry ,i4 of ,england1 who is said to have 8never smiled again0 after the loss of the 8white ship0 in which his son and heir--not mentioned by name in the poem--perished in crossing the channel from ,normandy4 8,the ,king's ,tragedy0 relates1 through the mouth of ,catherine ,douglas 78,kate ,barlass071 the assassination of ,james ,i4 of ,scotland by ,sir ,robert ,graeme4 ,in neither ballad is the action lifted to an unfamiliar or phantasmal world2 in both it is transfused1 as it passes across the stage of actual history1 with a glow and glamour of supernatural light2 brought near to us with a direct realism of incident and detail as convincing as it is transparent1 and yet shrouded in an atmosphere of mysticism and reserve1 pervaded with a sense of doom and fatality1 that holds us in a mingled awe and exaltation such as we feel in the purest ,greek tragedy1 amid the strivings of the gods with men4 ,the narrative of 8,the ,white ,ship0 is told bluntly1 vividly1 incoherently1 by the humblest of the king's retinue and the sole survivor of the royal train1 8the butcher of ,rouen1 poor ,berold20 and the movement seems to gather the more power and sincerity from his untutored lips4 ,its dominant motives1 its finer touches1--the withholding of the hero's name and the allusions to him merely as 8the ,prince10 the emphasis on the manner of the death of the 8lawless1 shameless youth0 who died1 after all1 for his sister's sake--the emphasis throughout on character rather than on incident--these are true marks of romantic poetry4 ,but 8,the ,king's ,tragedy0 far surpasses the earlier ballad in sustained and unfaltering dignity of passion1 in the tender humanness of the narrative setting1 the grandly simple presentation of the climax1 and the weird portent of the earlier scenes4 ,none but the two or three who saw the writer in the course of his task can know what the poem cost ,rossetti in his dying year1--the last great product of a literary genius still ascendant when obscured by death1 and if not the finest of all his ballads1 sharing at least the rank of 8,sister ,helen10 8,rose ,mary10 and 8,the ,blessed ,damozel40 ,never does he use the supernatural machinery with a more masterly restraint or yet with a more powerful effect of dread and presage1 than when he brings the aged woman of the sea1 like one of the witches of 8,macbeth10 to confront the ,king with her fourfold vision of his doom3 8,four years it is since first ,i met1 ',twixt the ,duchray and the ,dhu1 ,a shape whose feet clung close in a shroud1 ,and that shape for thine ,i knew4 8,a year again1 and on ,inchkeith ,isle ,i saw thee pass in the breeze1 ,with the cerecloth risen above thy feet ,and wound about thy knees4 8,and yet a year1 in the ,links of ,forth1 ,as a wanderer without rest1 ,thou cam'st with both thine arms i' the shroud ,that clung high up thy breast4 99 99 99 99 99 99 8,and when ,i met thee again1 ,o ,king1 ,that of death hast such sore drouth1-- ,except thou turn again on this shore1-- ,the winding-sheet shall have moved once more1 ,and covered thine eyes and mouth4 8,for every man on ,god's ground1 ,o ,king1 ,his death grows up from his birth ,in a shadow-plant perpetually2 ,and thine towers high1 a black yew-tree1 ,o'er the ,charterhouse of ,perth60 ,then1 in strange contrast to the wild scenery of the 8black beach-side0 in winter1 we are shown the king and queen at home and keeping festival in the ill-fated house4 ,the revelry of the halls1 and the quiet joy of the hearthside1 seem to avert for a time the coming woe4 ,the king takes his harp1 and sings to the queen an old love-song which he had written to her from prison long ago4 ,but soon the boded fate falls on them unaware3 8',twas a wind-wild eve in ,february1 ,and against the casement pane ,the branches smote like summoning hands1 ,and muttered the driving rain40 ,the entrance of the traitors1 with 8three hundred armd men10 urges on the climax of the tragedy1 until at last the king1 discovered in the vault where he had hastily hidden3 8,half-naked stood1 but stood as one ,who yet could do and dare4 ,with the crown1 the ,king was stript away1-- ,the ,knight was 'reft of his battle array1-- ,but still the man was there60 ,the poem ends on a stern note of revenge and retribution1 for1 when the shameful deed is done1 the queen keeps watch for a whole month beside the royal body2 refusing to permit the burial till every one of the 8murderous league0 is put to a more terrible death than his lord4 8,and then she said1--#8,my ,king1 they are dead6' ,and she knelt on the chapel floor1 ,and whispered low with a strange proud smile1-- #8,james1 ,james1 they suffered more6'0 ,there is1 perhaps1 a higher aspect to this passion of revenge1 this fierce1 imperative1 triumphant sense of moral justice and supernatural retribution1 than the somewhat partial and personal form which it assumes in medival poetry4 ,beneath the crude worship of arbitrary rule1 behind the primitive conception of a ,power that for ever vindicates the brave and puts the coward to confusion1 lies the germ of that larger sense of divine vengeance which inspires and dominates all great tragedy4 ,something of this higher strain of feeling1 this perception of the futility of merely human punishments and personal judgments1 yet mingled with an instinctive acceptance of the human measures as the instruments of the divine1 finds expression in the ballad of 8,sister ,helen40 ,the theme is based upon an ancient superstition to the effect that the death of a wrong-doer could be supernaturally procured by the injured person1 by making a waxen image in his semblance and melting it for three days and nights before a fire4 ,sister ,helen's lover has been unfaithful to her1 and in her anger against him she melts his image and keeps her dreadful watch relentlessly through the appointed hours1 till the spell is completed1 and her vengeance achieves its purpose in the death of her enemy4 ,the poem is cast in the form of a dialogue between ,sister ,helen and her little brother1 whose childish wonder at the mysterious process distracts him from his play2 and he looks by turns at the fatal fire and at the wintry landscape without4 8#8,why did you melt your waxen man1 ,sister ,helen8 ,to-day is the third since you began4' #8,the time was long1 yet the time ran1 ,little brother4' 7,o ,mother1 ,mary ,mother1 ,three days to-day1 between ,hell and ,heaven670 ,she bids the child watch from the balcony while she1 within1 proceeds with her incantation4 ,presently messengers ride hastily up the road1 calling upon ,helen1 and pleading with her for mercy upon the dying man3 8#8,but he calls for ever on your name1 ,sister ,helen1 ,and says that he melts before a flame4' #8,my heart for his pleasure fared the same1 ,little brother4' 7,o ,mother1 ,mary ,mother1 ,fire at the heart1 between ,hell and ,heaven670 ,the contrast between the boy's innocent1 eager reports and observations1 and ,helen's bitter1 mocking answers1 carries with it all the solemn terror of the ,greek1 and all the mystic navet of the medival world4 ,at last the unfaithful lover's aged father1 and finally his three days' bride1 arrive to add their entreaties for his life1 and the lady falls fainting at ,helen's inhospitable door4 8#8,they've caught her to ,westholm's saddle-bow1 ,sister ,helen1 ,and her moonlit hair gleams white in its flow4' #8,let it turn whiter than winter snow1 ,little brother6' 7,o ,mother1 ,mary ,mother1 ,woe-withered gold1 between ,hell and ,heaven670 ,it is not until too late that ,helen learns that by seeking revenge for her own sorrow she has only doubled the sin4 ,absorbed in her own heart's bitterness1 she cannot know that the only anger worthy to play a part in the divine retribution is that which burns not so much for the sin against self as for the sin against love2 which draws from the smart of personal injury a righteous indignation for others' wrongs1 a profound and passionate pity for fellow-victims of a too common evil1 a too familiar grief4 ,but in ,helen's vengeance lies her own despair3 8#8,ah6 what white thing at the door has crossed1 ,sister ,helen8 ,ah6 what is this that sighs in the frost8' #8,a soul that's lost as mine is lost1 ,little brother6' 7,o ,mother1 ,mary ,mother1 ,lost1 lost1 all lost1 between ,hell and ,heaven670 ,the same thought of reciprocal sin1 if we may so express it1--of the mutual responsibility of soul to soul1--that subtle action of the law of vicarious suffering by which every soul that falls short of its own highest and best inevitably drags down some other soul with it1--and the converse thought of individual redemption through mutual love3 these afford the motive of 8,rose ,mary40 8,shame for shame1 yea1 and sin for sin3 ,yet peace at length may our poor souls win ,if love for love be found therein40 ,the story turns upon the magic properties attributed to the ,beryl-stone1 into which the pure in heart might look and read the future1 and be forewarned against all danger or calamity4 ,rose ,mary's mother bids her read the mysterious crystal on the eve of her lover's journey to a distant shrine1 whither he rides to seek shrift for his soul before the wedding-day4 ,the mother fears some ambush of foes by the way1 and trusts the ,beryl to reveal where the danger lies4 ,unknown to her1 however1 ,rose ,mary and her lover have joined in sin2 and their sin dispossesses the good spirits from the stone1 and yields their place to evil spirits1 so that the spell works by contraries1 and the oracle speaks falsely2 the lover is betrayed and killed on the road at night4 ,but1 unknown to ,rose ,mary1 her lover has been faithless1 even to her own love4 ,the sin is threefold1--his with her1 hers with him1 and his with another2 and ,rose ,mary learns that only by an heroic forgiveness and self-sacrifice which shall cost her very life can she atone for her own and his greater sin1 win pardon for both1 and cast out the evil tenants from the ,beryl stone4 ,the ballad moves throughout at ,rossetti's highest poetic level2 its majestic rhythm sweeps from verse to verse in a torrent of swift1 strong1 lyric narrative1 almost too cohesive for quotation1 save in such descriptive stanzas as these3 8,even as she spoke1 they two were 'ware ,of music-notes that fell through the air2 ,a chiming shower of strange device1 ,drop echoing drop1 once1 twice1 and thrice1 ,as rain may fall in ,paradise4 99 99 99 99 99 99 ,as the globe slid to its silken gloom1 ,once more a music rained through the room2 ,low it splashed like a sweet star-spray1 ,and sobbed like tears at the heart of ,may1 ,and died as laughter dies away40 ,but the imagery from first to last is of extraordinary tenderness and power2 as1 for instance1 in describing the first lightning-flash before a storm1-- 8,ere labouring thunders heave the chain ,from the flood-gates of the drowning rain10 or when1-- 8,the dawn broke dim on ,rose ,mary's soul1-- ,no hill-crown's heavenly aureole1 ,but a wild gleam on a shaken shoal10 and in the past night1-- 8,she knew she had waded bosom-deep ,along death's bank in the sedge of sleep40 ,it is impossible to adequately criticise 8,rose ,mary0 without reference to the question already raised by ,mr4 ,theodore ,watts1 as to whether in future editions of ,rossetti's poems the 8,beryl ,songs0 should not be removed from their present places in the interludes of the poem and relegated to a note at the end4 ,writing on this point in the 8,athenum10 ,mr4 ,watts said3--8,the only case in which ,rossetti's changes were not improvements was the case of the changes in #8,rose ,mary1' made1 not after1 but before1 it appeared in type1--changes which can only be called lamentable4 ,it had lain in its perfect form for years1 and although it had been read in manuscript to scores of friends1 no line in it had been altered4 ,but when passing #8,ballads and ,sonnets' through the press in #ahha1 at a time when he was out of health1 ,rossetti called to mind certain remarks upon a supposed lack of clarity in his work which had fallen not only from some critics but from certain friends2 and in an evil moment it occurred to him that it would be a gain to #8,rose ,mary' if the three parts were knit together by lyrics1 and he set to work to write the #8,beryl ,songs' which now appear in the ballad4 ,the lyrics themselves are not good1 for his endowment of metre was not equal to his other poetical gifts2 but had they been as good as the lyrics in #8,maud' the disaster to the poem would have been none the less grievous4 ,a friend whom at that time he consulted upon everything strongly fought against the introduction of these incongruities1 but ,rossetti was too ill to be persistently opposed1 and only became conscious of the mistake when it was too late1 the book being then before the public40 ,it is obvious that the friend here alluded to is ,mr4 ,watts himself1 and it must be remembered that inasmuch as every line of the ballad without the lyrics had been familiar to him for years1 his verdict can hardly be accepted as that of an unbiassed judge4 ,it is1 at all events1 dubious whether any editor would now presume to disturb the sequence of the poem4 ,in one other ballad of kindred structure does ,rossetti sustain a similar flow of exquisite imagination1 in verbal beauty and subtlety of idiom hard to surpass in modern ,english verse4 8,the ,bride's ,prelude0 is indeed but a lovely fragment1 a delicate vignette1 a little character-sketch bathed in the warmest and finest of medival colouring2 a prelude only1 as it modestly claims to be2 but1 like ,chopin's preludes in music1 so perfect in its limited range that the ear craves no further melody for a long while after its brief passion has sung itself to rest4 ,it is a bride's confession to her younger sister on her wedding morn2 and1 taking the form of a broken monologue interspersed with descriptive passages of the highest poetic order1 its movement is more deliberate1 its ornament more richly wrought1 perhaps1 than that of the more dramatic ballads4 ,it might almost be said that nowhere else does ,rossetti so oppress the reader with the actual feeling of the atmosphere in which the tale is told4 ,the intense and sultry stillness of the chamber at mid-noon1 where the two women sit together probing for the first and only time the one dire secret of the past1 weighs upon us like veritable glare and burning silence1 save for the bride's difficult speech1 and the shocked sister's faint answers1 and the keen1 far-off sounds in the courtyard below1 till the last word is said4 ,every minute detail of sight and sound heightens the effect of warmth and colour in contrast to the bare simplicity and hard tragedy of the narrative4 8,the room lay still in dusty glare1 ,having no sound through it ,except the chirp of a caged bird ,that came and ceased3 and if she stirred1 ,amelotte's raiment could be heard4 8,although the lattice had dropped loose1 ,there was no wind2 the heat ,being so at rest that ,amelotte ,heard far beneath the plunge and float ,of a hound swimming in the moat4 8,some minutes since1 two rooks had toiled ,home to the nests that crowned ,ancestral ash-trees4 ,through the glare ,beating again1 they seemed to tear ,with that thick caw the woof o' the air40 ,such fragments afford the merest glimpses of the background1 the pure1 delicate1 ultra-refined1 and yet intensely naturalistic setting of the poem4 ,and indeed it is this highest refinement of naturalism1 this perfect idealization of realities1 this raising of the simplest and commonest accessories of life into universal beauty and significance1 that remains ,rossetti's inmost1 utmost charm4 ,this it is that sends us back1 again and again1 from all the splendours of his maturity1 from the vivid glories of the ballads and the long-drawn passion of the sonnets1 to the primal sweetness and utter simplicity of 8,the ,blessed ,damozel20 the easiest to love1 the hardest to place in a just order1 amid all that came from the hand and heart of ,rossetti4 ,written in his nineteenth year 7though re-touched with important improvements afterwards71 while the ballads above referred to were the work of his maturity1--and as remote from them in spirit as in date1 the poem is unique among unique poetry4 8,the ,blessed ,damozel0 is no product of precocity4 ,it has not the laboured archaism1 the studied originality1 which mark most of the travel-poems of #ahdi 78,paris and ,belgium10 8,antwerp and ,bruges10 etc474 ,superb as are the sonnets of that early period--such noble utterances as 8,the ,staircase of ,notre ,dame10 8,place de la ,bastille10 and 8,the ,refusal of ,aid between ,nations0 remaining unsurpassed by anything in the 8,house of ,life0 series--the irregular lyrics and blank-verse chronicles of those journeys are apt to keep us in mind of those etymological researches at the ,british ,museum by which ,rossetti is said to have stored his vocabulary with the purest ,saxon1 preparatory to ballad-work4 8,the ,blessed ,damozel10 on the contrary1 is the most spontaneous and convincing of all his shorter poems4 ,it seems to have sprung straight from the heart of the boy-poet in a sort of prophetic rapture1 ere he knew the sorrow which he sang1 and which his song should ease1 as the most perfect art can sometimes ease1 in other souls1 for generations to come4 ,its strength lies in the very acme of tenderness2 its source in the purest strain of common human feeling--the passionate1 insatiable craving of the faithful heart for the continuity of life and love beyond the tomb1 and the deep sense of the poverty of celestial compromises to satisfy the mourner on either side of the gulf that ,death has set between4 ,here again is the true romantic note--the insistence on the joy and glory of the physical world1 the delight in the earthly manifestations of affection1 and the awed1 plaintive conflict of impatience with resignation under the mystery of parting and transition to an unknown state4 ,it is the same thought which an ,american poet has expressed in 8,homesick in ,heaven10--the thought that the beloved departed must in some way share the sorrow of separation1 and await the last reunion with scarcely less longing than theirs whom they have left behind4 8,the ,blessed ,damozel0 is one whom ,death has thus removed from her lover's side1 and she is pictured leaning out of ,heaven1 watching with tears and prayers for some sign of his coming4 ,it is the lover himself who sees her thus1 as in a dream1 and tells us how1-- 8,she bowed herself1 and stooped ,out of the circling charm1 ,until her bosom must have made ,the bar she leaned on warm10 and how1 on the mystic borderland between earth and heaven1-- 8,the souls mounting up to ,god ,went by her like thin flames40 ,the glories of the upper air have no charm for her until he shares them4 ,still gazing downward from 8the ramparts of ,god's house10 she sees-- 8,the tides of day and night ,with flame and darkness ridge ,the void1 as low as where this earth ,spins like a fretful midge20 she knows the angels who 8sit circlewise0-- 8,to fashion the birth-robes for them ,who are just born1 being dead60 ,her one prayer is for the old companionship1 the old1 simple1 earthly happiness1-- 8,only to live as once on earth ,with ,love1--only to be1 ,as then awhile1 for ever now1 ,together1 ,i and he40 ,it was not until many years later that 8,the ,blessed ,damozel0 afforded the subject of the picture by which ,rossetti is most popularly and superficially known to the outer world4 ,it was his habit to inscribe his pictures with some original verse1 generally in sonnet form2 and some of his best descriptive sonnets1 such as 8,pandora10 8,fiametta10 8,found10 8,astarte ,syriaca10 and 8,mary ,magdalene10 had such an origin4 8,the ,blessed ,damozel0 is said to be only instance of a picture executed after instead of before the correlative poem4 ,two important works stand yet apart1 alike from what we have classed as introspective and personal poetry1 and from the splendid ballads in which consists ,rossetti's most immortal contribution to ,english literature4 8,jenny0 and 8,a ,last ,confession0 exemplify his use of the dramatic monologue1 and alone among his compositions bear in a marked degree the influence of ,browning4 ,especially is this influence notable in 8,a ,last ,confession40 ,the ,italy of this wonderful fragment--placed by critics of authority in the front rank of ,rossetti's work--is1 par excellence1 ,browning's ,italy1 with all the intense humanness and distinction of character which dominates its furies and its loves1 with all the ,saxon intellect and reason stamped into and burning through the irresponsible passion of the ,south4 ,just as in his ballads and sonnets ,rossetti grafted the clean-cut ,saxon diction on to the long and languorous habit of the ,latin tongue1 so in 8,a ,last ,confession0 does he graft vivid thought and piercing argument upon the deep pathos and terror of the theme4 ,it is a death-bed story told in a priest's ear2 a story of passion and crime1 and of a girl's shallow laugh that drove her lover to kill her in a frenzy of despair4 ,for he remembered how1 awhile before1-- 444 8,a brown-shouldered harlot leaned ,half through a tavern window thick with wine4 ,some man had come behind her in the room ,and caught her by the arms1 and she had turned ,with that coarse empty laugh on him4444 444 ,and three hours afterwards1 ,when she that ,i had run all risks to meet ,laughed as ,i told you1 my life burned to death ,within me1 for ,i thought it like the laugh ,heard at the fair4444 ,and all she might have changed to1 or might change to1 ,seemed in that laugh40 ,somewhat akin in spirit 7though less dramatic in treatment71 in that it deals with the problem of sexual love in its darkest form1 is the rhymed monologue entitled 8,jenny20 and put into the mouth of one who has followed1 half in pity1 half in curiosity1 a beautiful courtesan to her home1 and sits with her in the luxurious chamber which is the purchase of her shame4 ,the poem is to some extent in obvious relation to ,rossetti's long contemplated but never completed picture1 8,found20 but the latter shows the end of poor ,jenny in after years1-- 8,when1 wealth and health slipped past1 you stare ,along the streets alone1 and there1 ,round the long park1 across the bridge1 ,the cold lamps at the pavement's edge1 ,wind on together and apart1 ,a fiery serpent for your heart10-- whereas her visitor in the poem finds her in all her prime and pride1 and asks1-- 8,what has man done here8 ,how atone ,great ,god1 for this which man has done8 4 4 4 4 4 4 ,but if1 as blindfold fates are tossed ,through some one man this life be lost1 ,shall soul not somehow pay for soul80 8,jenny10 perhaps1 being cast in a more meditative form1 lacks the poignancy and fervour of the utterance which comes1 in 8,a ,last ,confession10 from the lips of the sinner himself instead of from the spectator merely1 but it surpasses all contemporary studies of its kind in its bold and masterly handling of a difficult theme4 ,both1 however1 are distinct from the lyric poems in that their abruptness of movement and irregularity of structure are the abruptness and irregularity of quick dramatic thought1 impatient of metrical elaboration1 surcharging the poetic vehicle with subject matter2 an effect which must not be confused with the ruggedness of the true ballad-form1 whose broken music haunts the ear by its very waywardness and variety of rhythm1 and gains its end by a studied artlessness the more exquisite for its apparent unconstraint4 ,nor is the effect of ,rossetti's universal preference for assonance over rhyme--a special characteristic of romantic poetry-- identical in the ballads1 sonnets and monologues just quoted4 ,in the sonnets it relieves the rigid tension of the rhyme-system with an overtone of delicate caprice4 ,in 8,jenny0 and 8,a ,last ,confession0 it heightens the suggestion of impulse1 and even haste of thought and emotion outrunning the metrical order which it chose4 ,in the ballads1 it is the result of the finest workmanship1 not of accident or pressure of thought upon speech2 it is the rich inlaying of the most highly-wrought woof of imaginative language with the brilliance of a perpetual surprise4 ,rossetti is too near to us for a final estimate of his place among the century's poets4 ,enough has been said to illustrate the range and consistency of his art1 as a whole1 and the intimate relation of his poetry to his painting4 ,the dominant sthetic motives are the same in 8,dante's ,dream0 and 8,the ,house of ,life10 in 8,dis ,manibus0 and 8,the ,king's ,tragedy10 in 8,beata ,beatrix0 and 8,the ,blessed ,damozel40 ,he was the prophet of a natural idealism1 based upon the frank acceptance and pursuit of the highest earthly good1 subject only and absolutely to moral and spiritual law4 ,he stood apart1 as we have seen1 from the intellectual struggles of his day4 ,philosophical controversies seldom troubled him4 ,to theological speculation and historical discovery he was alike indifferent4 ,but his isolation1 his specialism even1 are but evidences of the intensity of the new life to which he was awakened1 and the reality of the visions which he saw4 ,he sets before us in all its significance the problem of the dual possibilities of womanhood1 by the simple1 irresistible1 pictorial statement of the contrast between the shameful actuality of 8,found0 and the noble ideal of 8,sibylla ,palmifera0 and 8,monna ,vanna40 ,his lamentation for the manhood of his age is that1-- 444 8,man is parcelled out in men ,to-day2 because1 for any wrongful blow1 ,no man not stricken asks1 #8,i would be told ,why thou dost strike'2 but his heart whispers then1 #8,he is he1 ,i am ,i4'0 ,such words are but the reiteration of that moral collectivism1 that principle that 8soul must somehow pay for soul10 which ,rossetti maintains unbrokenly as an assumption needing neither emphasis nor reserve4 ,the problem which his work leaves to the next generation lies in the application of that principle to social and national ideals4 ,the task of the twentieth century will be to do for society what ,rossetti has done for art1--to restore to it the dignity and glory of a free life1 embracing all that nature has to give1 under the dominion of associated reason1 and conscience1 and will4 ,and when ,rossetti's genius shall have fulfilled its share in that unification of all knowledge to which the paths of science and poetry1 art and scholarship1 tend alike in the progress of time1 ,england and ,italy may join in worthier recognition of his life-work1 whose face was set towards the final triumph of humanity-- the reconciliation of the physical with the spiritual world4 ----- ,footnote #ae3 ,f4,w4,h4 ,myers1 8,essays3 ,modern40 ,,the ,,end4 ,,index4 ,academy1 ,the ,royal1 #cc1 #gd-ge1 #hj-ha1 #ajh1 #abb1 #abf-abh1 #afa4 ,academy ,schools1 #bc1 #bg-ca4 ,academicians of last generation1 #cc4 8,adam and ,eve10 #cd4 8,alastor10 #ajh4 ,albert ,gallery1 ,edinburgh1 #aah4 ,allingham1 ,william1 #acf4 8,anniversary of the ,death of ,beatrice10 #aah1 #bee4 8,annunciation1 ,the10 #bjd-bje4 ,anthony1 ,mark1 #hg1 #abh-abi4 8,april ,love10 #abe4 8,art and ,poetry10 #gb4 8,arthur conveyed to ,avalon10 #adc4 ,art ,union1 ,the1 #abi4 ,arundel ,club1 ,the1 #aag4 8,astarte ,syriaca10 or 8,venus ,astarte10 #ei1 #ahd-ahe1 #ahi4 8,aurelia1 or ,fazio's ,mistress10 #aag1 #aeg4 ,australia1 #ajh4 8,autumn ,leaves10 #aba1 #abg1 #bbi4 8,awakening ,conscience1 ,the10 #adi1 #bbd1 #bcf1 #bci4 8,ballads and ,sonnets10 #ahf1 #bih4 ,banks1 ,mrs41 #afh4 ,barbizon ,school1 #acd4 ,baring1 ,miss1 #afh4 ,bateman1 ,e4,l41 #aji4 8,beata ,beatrix10 #d1 #ia1 #aba1 #aeg1 #aei1 #afa-afb1 #bbd1 #beb-bec4 8,beatrice10 #abi4 ,behnes1 #ajh4 8,bello ,mano1 ,la10 #aha4 8,beloved1 ,the10 or 8,the ,bride10 #ia1 #aeg4 8,benedick and ,beatrice10 #ajf4 ,beryl ,songs1 #bih4 8,bethlehem ,gate10 #aaf1 #afj1 #bag4 ,birchington1 #aij-aib4 ,birmingham ,art ,gallery1 #aec1 #afb4 8,black ,brunswicker1 ,the10 #abg1 #adh1 #bdc-bdd4 ,blake1 #b1 #acg1 #bfg4 8,blessed ,damozel1 ,the10 #d1 #afb1 #age-agf1 #ahj1 #ahe1 #bag1 #beg1 #bfc1 #bhg1 #bij1 #cja-cjd4 8,blind ,girl1 ,the10 #aba-abb1 #bbh-bbi4 8,blue ,bower1 ,the10 #ia1 #aag1 #aeg4 8,blue ,closet1 ,the10 #aag-aah4 8,boat of ,love1 ,the10 #ahj1 #bea4 8,bocca ,baciata10 #ajd1 #aag1 #aeg4 8,body of ,harold1 ,the10 #cd4 ,bognor1 #aha-ahb4 ,botticelli1 #dh1 #ej4 8,bower ,garden1 ,the10 #aag4 8,bower ,maiden1 ,the10 #agb1 #agi4 ,boyce1 ,w4,p41 #abi4 ,boyd1 ,miss ,alice1 #afh1 #aga4 ,brett1 ,mr4 ,john1 #aah1 #abi4 8,briar ,rose1 ,the10 #bcb4 8,bride's ,prelude1 ,the10 #bfc1 #bhf1 #bii-cja4 ,british ,institution1 #ajh4 ,brotherhood1 ,the ,pre-,raphaelite1 formed1 #fb-fi2 dispersed1 #ajg1 #aai4 ,brown1 ,ford ,madox1 #cb-ce1 #fd1 #ga1 #gc1 #hg1 #aah1 #ach1 #aea-aee1 #afa-afb1 #age1 #agh1 #aic1 #bai2 some characteristics of1 #cd1 #fd1 #ajg1 #aea-aee1 #bai1 #bbf2 portrait of1 #aaj4 ,browning1 ,robert1 #he1 #id-if1 #ajd1 #afe-aff1 #aii2 portraits of1 #aji1 #aag4 8,burd1 ,helen10 #abg4 ,burlington ,club1 #bjd4 ,burne-,jones1 ,e41 #d1 #adj-adc1 #bad2 some characteristics of1 #bje1 #bai-bba1 #bbd1 #bcb1 #bdf-bdh4 ,burne-,jones1 ,mrs41 #afh4 ,burton1 ,w4,s41 #abi1 #bdh4 ,byron1 #bfh4 ,caine1 ,mr4 ,hall1 #ahh-ahi1 #aij1 #aib4 ,campbell1 ,james1 #abi4 8,caractacus10 #ce4 8,carlisle ,tower10 #aaf4 ,carlyle1 ,thomas1 #he1 #aed2 portrait of1 #ajh4 ,carrick1 ,j4,m41 #abi4 ,cary's ,academy1 #bc1 #cj4 8,cassandra10 #ahi4 ,cassavetti1 the ,misses1 #afh4 8,chapel before the ,lists1 ,the10 #aaf4 8,charity ,boy's ,dbut1 ,the10 #fc4 ,chatham ,place1 #id1 #aei1 #afc4 ,chatterton1 #c1 #bfg1 #bhj4 8,chaucer at the ,court of ,edward ,,iii410 #ce1 #aec4 ,chelsea1 #afc1 #agb1 #ahj1 #aic4 ,christchurch1 ,albany ,street1 #afi4 ,christianity in ,english ,art1 #e1 #gf-gg1 #aif-bba4 ,christianity in ,italian ,art1 #dj-dc1 #df-dh1 #ej-eb4 8,christian ,priests ,escaping10 or1 8,the ,christian ,missionary10 #gf1 #adf4 8,christ in the ,house of ,his ,parents10 #ge-gh1 #abf1 #bje-bjh4 8,christ in the ,temple10 #d1 #aej1 #bah4 8,christmas ,carol1 ,a10 #aah4 8,christ's ,entry into ,jerusalem10 #abi4 ,cimabue1 #ci1 #dg1 #eg4 ,classicism1 characteristics of1 #i-ab1 #de1 #di-ej4 ,classicism of the ,eighteenth ,century1 #i-aj4 ,classicism under the ,puritans1 #aa4 8,claudio and ,isabella10 #adi1 #bbd1 #bdd1 #bdf4 ,clifton1 ,j4,t41 #fa4 ,coleridge1 #bfg4 ,collins1 ,charles1 #aah1 #abf4 ,collins1 ,william1 #abf4 ,collinson1 ,james1 #d1 #fc1 #gd1 #ic1 #ii1 #abf4 ,combe1 ,mr4 ,thomas1 and ,mrs41 #adf4 ,constable1 #b1 #c4 8,convent ,thoughts10 #abf4 8,cordelia's ,portion10 #aec4 ,cornelius1 #acd4 ,coronio1 ,mrs41 #afh4 8,cottager's ,return1 ,the10 #abe4 ,cox1 ,david1 #aca4 8,cromwell ,dictating10 #aee4 8,cromwell on his ,farm10 #aee4 8,crucifixion1 ,the10 #aaf1 #bae4 ,cumberland1 #ahh-ahi4 ,cuyp1 #acb4 ,cyclographic ,society1 #fj-fa4 8,cymon and ,iphigenia10 #fb4 ,dalrymple1 ,mrs41 #afh4 8,damozel1 ,the ,blessed10 #d1 #afb1 #age-agf1 #ahj1 #ahe1 #bag1 #beg1 #bfc1 #bhg1 #bij1 #cja-cjd4 8,damozel of the ,sanct ,grael1 ,the10 #aaf1 #aha4 ,danby1 #acb4 8,dante at ,verona10 #bae1 #bfb1 #bhd-bhe4 ,dante1 influence of1 #bb1 #ih2 illustrations of1 #ii1 #ajd-aje1 #aaf-aah1 #abi1 #ahj1 #aij1 #bdi-beh1 #bfi4 8,dante's ,dream10 #d1 #aaf1 #aah1 #ach1 #afb1 #afh1 #agc1 #ahh1 #aij1 #bec-bee4 8,day and ,night ,songs10 #acf4 8,day-dream1 ,the10 #aci1 #ahj-aha1 #ahf-ahg4 ,davis1 ,william1 #aah1 #abi4 8,death of ,boadicea10 #ajh4 8,death of ,breuse sans ,piti1 ,the10 #aaf4 8,death of ,chatterton1 ,the10 #abh4 8,death of ,lady ,macbeth1 ,the10 #bcf4 8,death of ,sir ,tristram1 ,the10 #aed4 ,dennis1 ,william1 #fa4 ,deverell1 ,walter1 #e1 #fa1 #ii1 #aai4 8,devout ,childhood of ,st4 ,elizabeth1 ,the10 #abf4 8,dis ,manibus10 or 8,the ,roman ,widow10 #afg1 #age1 #ahj4 8,donna della ,finestra1 ,la10 or 8,our ,lady of ,pity10 #aha1 #bbd1 #bef-beh4 ,dpplegnger ,legends1 ,the1 #ajf1 #bbe4 8,down ,stream10 #agb4 8,dream of ,sardanapalus1 ,the10 #aed4 ,dunn1 ,mr4 ,h4,t41 #agj4 ,drer1 ,albrecht1 #ea1 #hb4 ,dutch ,school1 #ci4 8,ecce ,ancilla ,domini10 #d1 #fd1 #gh-gi1 #ib1 #bjc4 8,edward ,grey10 #aci4 8,eleanor ,sucking the ,poison10 #ajh4 8,elijah and the ,widow's ,son10 #aee4 ,eliot1 ,george1 #aif-aii4 ,elnore1 #acd4 8,enemy ,sowing ,tares1 ,the10 #abb1 #adg4 ,english ,art in #ahej1 #b1 #c4 8,entombment1 ,the10 #d1 #aee1 #bai4 8,eros and ,euphrosyne10 #ajh4 8,eve of ,st4 ,agnes1 ,the10 #d1 #aba-abb1 #abe1 #adg1 #bdh-bdi4 ,exhibitions1 ,pre-,raphaelite1 #fg1 #aah4 ,expression in ,art1 #be-bf4 8,fair ,rosamund10 #aah4 8,farmer's ,daughter1 ,the10 #aah4 8,fazio's ,mistress10 #aag1 #aeg4 8,feeding the ,hungry10 #ajh4 8,ferdinand ,lured by ,ariel10 #ge-gh1 #ia4 8,fiametta10 #afh4 8,fiametta1 ,a ,vision of10 #aai1 #aha1 #ahe4 ,fine ,art ,society1 ,the1 #aah4 8,fleshly ,school of ,poetry1 ,the10 #agf4 8,flight of ,madeline and ,porphyro10 #fb1 #bdh4 ,foreign ,schools1 #acd4 ,forsyth1 ,rev4 ,p4,f41 #aii1 #baf1 #bda4 8,found10 #d1 #ajg1 #bcf-bcg1 #cjf4 ,frescoes at ,manchester1 #aee2 at ,oxford1 #adb-adf2 at ,westminster ,hall1 #cc-ce1 #ajh1 #abh1 #aea4 ,fra ,angelico1 #e1 #dh4 8,fra ,angelico ,painting10 #aag4 ,fra ,bartolomeo1 #aac4 ,fra ,lippo ,lippi1 #dh4 8,fra ,pace10 #aag4 8,francesca da ,rimini10 #bae1 #bcd-bce4 8,galahad1 ,sir10 #aaf1 #ach1 #adc1 #bcb4 8,gate of ,memory1 ,the10 #ajg1 #bcf-bch4 8,george1 ,st41 ,a ,wedding of10 #aah4 8,george1 ,st41 and ,princess ,sabra10 #afj1 #bde4 8,germ1 ,the10 #fi-gd1 #ie4 ,ghiberti1 #eg4 8,ghirlandata1 ,la10 #ia1 #aeh1 #afg1 #ahj4 ,giorgione1 #di4 8,giorgione ,painting10 #aag4 ,giotto1 #ci1 #dh1 #eg1 #aac4 8,giotto ,painting10 #bea4 8,girlhood of ,mary ,virgin1 ,the10 #a1 #d1 #ee1 #ff-fg1 #ib1 #bjb1 #bbe4 ,glasgow ,institute of ,fine ,arts1 #aah4 8,goblin ,market10 #aci4 ,goodall1 #acd4 ,gosse1 ,mr4 ,edmund1 #aff4 ,graham1 ,mr4 ,william1 #age4 ,gray1 ,miss ,euphemia ,chalmers1 #adh4 ,green1 ,n4,e41 #fa4 ,guildhall ,loan ,exhibition1 #afb4 ,hake1 ,dr4 ,gordon1 #age1 #agh-agi1 #aha2 portrait of1 #aji4 ,hake1 ,mr4 ,george1 #age1 #agh2 portrait of1 #aaj4 ,halliday1 ,m4,f41 #abi4 ,hancock1 ,john1 #fa1 #abi4 8,hand and ,soul10 #ga-gb4 ,hannay1 ,james ,lennox1 #gi4 8,hark60 #cj4 ,harris1 ,dr41 #aij1 #aib4 ,haydon1 #ij4 8,heart of the ,night1 ,the10 #afj1 #bca4 ,heaton1 ,mrs4 ,aldham1 #afg4 ,heaton1 ,miss1 #afh4 ,heine1 #aa1 #ad1 #aag1 #bgg4 ,hellenism in ,italy1 #db-di4 ,herbert1 ,miss1 #ajc1 #afg4 8,hesterna ,rosa10 #ajg1 #aah1 #bcf-bch4 8,hireling ,shepherd1 ,the10 #adi4 ,hogarth ,club1 #aag4 8,house of ,life1 ,the10 #afa1 #bfb-bhb4 ,howell1 ,mrs41 #afh4 8,how ,they ,met ,themselves10 #ajf1 #bbd-bbf4 8,hugenot1 ,a10 #d1 #aba1 #abg1 #adg1 #bdc1 #bdf4 ,hughes1 ,arthur1 #d1 #aah1 #abe1 #acf-acg1 #adb-adc1 #bjd-bje1 #bdi4 ,hunt1 ,william ,holman1 #bi-ca1 #ce-cf1 #fc-fg1 #hf-hg1 #ib1 #ie1 #ajj1 #aja1 #aji1 #aah-aai1 #abb1 #acg1 #adf1 #adh-aej2 characteristics of1 #f1 #ae1 #hf1 #ajg1 #ach1 #bjh-bac1 #bae-bag1 #bbd1 #bcj1 #bcf1 #bci1 #bdd1 #bdf1 #bdh2 portrait of1 #aji4 8,il ,ramoscello10 #aeg4 ,inchbold1 #aah4 8,infant ,christ ,adored1 ,the10 #aaf1 #aef1 #bah4 8,infants' ,repast1 ,the10 #cd4 8,isabella10 #ee1 #fj1 #fe1 #fg1 #bbi4 8,isabella and the ,pot of ,basil10 #aej4 8,isumbras at the ,ford1 ,sir10 #adh1 #bde-bdf4 ,italian ,pre-,raphaelites1 ,the1 #ci-eg1 #aac4 8,jenny10 #cjd-cjg4 8,jesus ,washes ,peter's ,feet10 #aee4 8,joan of ,arc10 #aia1 #bde4 ,johnson1 ,dr41 and the ,methodist ,ladies1 #aei4 8,joli ,cur10 #aai4 8,justice10 #cd4 8,kate the ,queen10 #ie4 ,keats1 influence of1 #eh1 #bfg1 #bgg2 subjects from1 #fj-fb1 #fe1 #aag1 #bbi1 #bdh-bdi4 ,keene1 ,j4,b41 #fa4 ,kelmscott1 #agb1 #agh4 ,kernahan1 ,mr4 ,coulson1 #agd4 8,king ,arthur ,receiving ,excalibur10 #adc4 8,king ,arthur's ,tomb10 #aaf1 #bcc4 ,kingdon1 ,miss1 #afh4 8,king ,ren's ,honeymoon10 #aed4 ,kingsley1 ,charles1 #ada4 8,king's ,tragedy1 ,the10 #h1 #ahf1 #bfc1 #bhf1 #bhi-bib4 ,knewstub1 ,mr41 #agj4 8,laboratory1 ,the10 #aje1 #bch4 8,lady ,lilith10 #aeg1 #bad4 8,lady of ,good ,children1 ,our10 #cd1 #aee4 8,lady of ,pity1 ,our10 #aha1 #bbd1 #bef-beh4 8,lady of ,shalott1 ,the10 #ach4 8,la ,pia10 #aeg1 #aei4 8,la ,ricordanza0 78,mnemosyne1 or the ,lamp of ,memory071 #ia1 #age1 #ahj4 8,last ,confession1 ,a10 #cjd-cjg4 8,last ,day in the ,old ,home1 ,the10 #abg4 8,last of ,england1 ,the10 #d1 #aec4 8,launcelot ,escaping10 #aaf4 8,launcelot1 ,sir1 before the ,shrine10 #adc1 #bcc4 ,lawrence1 #b1 #abb4 ,lear1 ,edward1 #abi4 ,leathart1 ,mrs41 #afh4 ,leighton1 ,sir ,f41 #acd4 ,leonardo1 #di1 #ea1 #aba1 #acb4 ,leopardi1 #bgg4 ,leyland1 ,mr4 ,f4,r41 #afc1 #age1 #aij2 portrait of1 #aji4 ,lewes1 ,j4,f41 #abi4 8,light of the ,world1 ,the10 #d1 #adf1 #baa-bac4 ,linnell1 #acb4 ,liverpool ,academy1 ,the1 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8,surgeon's ,daughter1 ,the10 #abg4 ,swinburne1 ,a4,c41 #ade1 #afd1 #aff1 #agg1 #bdb1 #bff1 #bge2 portraits of1 #aji1 #aag4 8,taurello's ,first ,sight of ,fortune10 #aje4 ,tebbs1 ,mrs4 ,virtue1 #afh4 ,technique1 ,imperfect1 #be1 #ci4 ,tennyson1 #he1 #id-ie1 #ajd1 #afe-aff1 #aii2 illustrations of1 #aaf1 #acg-aci1 #adb-adc1 #aed1 #afj1 #bcj-bcd2 portraits of1 #ajh-aji1 #aag1 #acg4 ,thomas1 ,mr4 ,cave1 #fi1 #abh4 ,thomson1 ,james1 #bfi1 #bgg4 8,tibullus's ,return to ,delia10 #aah4 8,times10 ,ruskin's letters to the1 #hj-hd4 ,tirebuck1 ,william1 #bbc4 8,titania10 #ajh4 ,titian1 #b1 #e1 #di4 8,too ,late10 #abg4 8,transfiguration1 ,the10 #aee4 8,tree of ,life1 ,the10 #bbj4 8,tristram and ,iseult10 #aaf1 #afj4 8,triumph of the ,innocents1 ,the10 #aej1 #bag4 8,tune of the ,seven ,towers1 ,the10 #aaf4 ,tupper1 ,mr4 ,j4,l41 #ga-gb4 ,turner1 #b1 #af4 8,two ,mothers10 #aai4 8,under the ,microscope10 #agg4 8,vale of ,rest1 ,the10 #af1 #abi1 #adh1 #bbh-bbi4 8,valentine and ,sylvia10 #gi-hj1 #hg-aja4 ,venables1 #adf4 8,venetian ,pastoral1 ,a10 #fh4 ,venetian ,school1 #di-ej4 8,venus ,astarte10 or 8,astarte ,syriaca10 #ei1 #ahd-ahe1 #ahi4 8,venus ,verticordia10 #aeg4 8,veronica ,veronese10 #ia1 #afg1 #ahj4 ,vinter1 ,mr4 ,j4,a41 #bc-bd1 #ca1 #fa4 8,viola10 #ajj-aja4 8,vision of ,fiametta1 ,a10 #aai4 8,waiting10 #aed4 ,walker ,art ,gallery1 ,liverpool1 ,the1 #aej1 #aed1 #agd1 #aij4 ,walker1 ,frederick1 #af4 ,walker1 ,sir ,a4,b41 #hh4 ,wallis1 ,henry1 #d1 #abh4 8,washing ,hands10 #aah1 #afj4 8,water ,willow10 #aai4 ,watkins1 ,f41 #fa4 ,watson1 ,j4,d41 #abi4 ,watts1 ,mr4 ,g4,f41 #d1 #cd1 #aac1 #aea1 #bbg1 #bce-bcf1 #bci-bdj4 ,watts1 ,mr4 ,theodore1 #aja1 #agd1 #aha1 #ahe1 #aij1 #aib1 #aie2 portrait of1 #aji4 8,wedding of ,st4 ,george1 ,a10 #aah4 ,wells1 ,mrs4 ,w4,t41 #afh4 8,white ,ship1 ,the10 #ahb1 #bfc1 #bhf1 #bhh-bij4 8,wicked ,husbandmen1 ,the10 #afi4 8,wiclif ,reading10 #cd1 #aeb4 8,widow's ,mite1 ,the10 #ce4 ,wilding1 ,miss1 #afg4 ,wilkie1 #ij4 ,williams1 ,miss1 #afh4 ,windus1 ,w4,l41 #aah1 #abg1 #bdh4 8,woodman's ,daughter1 ,the10 #hj1 #bbh-bbi4 ,woodward1 ,mr41 #adb4 ,woolner1 ,thomas1 #fc1 #ga1 #aje1 #ajh-aji1 #abi1 #acg1 #aec4 ,wordsworth1 #bgi1 #ahc4 8,work10 #aed4 ,working ,men's ,college1 ,the1 #ada4 ,wyatt1 ,mr4 ,james1 #ade4 ,illustration ,,chiswick ,,press3--,c4 ,,whittingham ,,and ,,co41 ,,tooks ,,court1 ,,chancery ,,lane4 ,footnotes ---------------------------------------- -------------------------------- ,transcriber's ,note ,errors in the text have been corrected where they can be reasonably attributed to the printer or editor1 or where the same word appears as expected elsewhere4 ,inconsistencies in punctuation1 particularly in the ,index1 have been resolved4 ,the details of each correction are noted below4 p4 xi 8,bethlehem ,gate0-- ,added4 p4 #d ,ruskin3 8,i believe ,rosetti's ,sic4 p4 #bb its poetry1 its self-devotion ,added4 p4 #cj ,millia_/ais's ,transposed4 p4 #fg duly signed and monogramed ,sic4 p4 #ga a poem called 8,the ,seasons10 ,mr4 ,added4 ,tupper p4 #gc 8,ruggiero and ,angelica0 ,added4 p4 #gd apologia for the ,pre-,raphaelite ,added4 ,brotherhood p4 #gd heaped upon the ,pre-,re_/aphaelites ,corrected4 p4 #gi seen only in the obscure little ,added4 ,portland ,gallery p4 #hd is to to have a principal ,removed4 p4 #aca #8,you see purple1' #8,you see red1' #8,you ,added4 see yellow4' p4 #bbd marked degree perhaps that_/n any other ,corrected4 drawings p4 #bci ever-significant story of 8,psyche0 ,added4 suggests the same