Dante Gabriel Rossetti: Veronica Veronese, 1872

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882)

Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator, and was the brother of poet Christina Rossetti and critic William Michael Rossetti. For many years, Rossetti worked on English translations of Italian poetry, he later created a method of painting in watercolours, using thick pigments mixed with gum to give rich effects similar to medieval illuminations. He also developed a novel drawing technique in pen-and-ink.

He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais, and was later to be the main inspiration for a second generation of artists and writers influenced by the movement, most notably William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones. Rossetti's art was characterised by its sensuality and its medieval revivalism.

Like much of Rossetti's work of the 1860s and 1870s, Veronica Veronese was inspired by Venetian painting. It is believed to represent the artistic soul in the act of creation. The symbolism in the painting includes the uncaged bird, which may represent the marriage of the voices of nature and the soul and overt flower symbolism. The camomile in the bird cage may represent "energy in adversity", the primroses youth, and the daffodils reflection. 

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HC-1511: card size 7" x 5" (178mm x 127mm)