PAINTING POETRY: THE INTERTWINING OF THE ART AND VERSE OF DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI

Abstract

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882), painter and poet, was one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. From a young age Rossetti was keenly aware of the interrelationships between art and verse and was convinced that painting and poetry were so closely related as to be inseparable. In both poetry and paintings, Rossetti's most frequent subject was Love, which he, like Dante, his namesake and guide, believed to be the driving force of his life. DGR chose to accept the opposing aspects of Sacred and Profane Love as a unified whole. He also chose to unify the sister arts of Painting and Poetry. Rossetti created what he called "picture-sonnets." These were double-works of art wherein a painting or drawing and a poem, both of his own invention, were made to be viewed and read simultaneously. The artist presented both the painting and poem to the viewer/reader by placing the verse within the painting itself or on the frame. Through an examination of the paintings and poetry of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the intertwining of his verbal and visual images, one can trace Rossetti's gradual conflation of the Sacred and Profane aspects of Love and his understanding of his dual identity as painter and poet.