Dante Gabriel Rosetti

#illustration #DanteGabrielRosetti

A young red-haired bereaved Roman widow (model Alexa Wilding) with bright red lips sits in a sepulchre by her late husband's cinerary urn, around which is her circular silver-white bridal girdle. She is dressed in classical yellow mourning drapery and playing an elegy on two small harps, one with each hand. Old-fashioned and wild pink roses, the flowers of Venus (goddess of love) wreath both the harp and the urn. The use of white reminds viewers of the absence of the woman’s departed husband. Her pale wraith-like face and drapery gives her an unworldly quality so we can sense she is not quite living in this world, nor the next. The roses add to the pale, subtle tonality and, as the symbols of Venus, signify the endurance of love, even after death. Rossetti's alternative title of Dîs Manibus refers to the prefix of the urn's inscription. A common epithet on Roman funerary monuments, often abbreviated to D M and meaning "to the Manes" or ghosts of the dead. It can be loosely translated as "to the memory of". The remainder of the text reads “L. AELIO AQUINO - MARITO CARISSIMO - PAPIRIA GEMINA FECIT - AVE DOMINE VALE DOMINE” which translates as “L Aelio Aquino - Dearest Husband - Papiria Gemina made this [urn] - Hail Master Farewell Master.” The inscription is taken from a Roman urn in Rossetti’s collection. The artist was known as an avid collector of antique objects. The painting was originally commissioned by the artist’s patron: shipping magnate Frederick Leyland.

Roman Widow (Dîs Manibus) by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (English) - Oil on canvas / 1874 - Museo de Arte de Ponce (Puerto Rico) #womeninart #painting #rosetti #pre-raphaelite #art #MuseodeArtedePonce #womensart #englishartist #artwork #widow #fineart #dantegabrielrosetti #womanart #oilpainting #bskyart