To celebrate the life and work of Dante, a small selection of paintings inspired by the Divine Comedy, and his ‘Vita Nuova’.
Rossetti
The great Florentine poet and writer Dante died of malaria on 14 September 1321, 700 years ago this Tuesday. A celebration of his life in paintings.
Two major works in his later years: ‘Work’, showing a crowded street in Victorian London, and 12 large murals for Manchester Town Hall.
After painting his masterpiece ‘The Last of England’, he returned to landscapes made with great attention to detail, in front of the motif. And they sold.
After training in Belgium, he painted a series of narrative works, then a finely detailed landscape of a view over London. Success eluded him.
Paintings of the city of Florence recreating times past, from Dante’s meeting with Beatrice, to Lorenzo the Magnificent in the late 15th century.
Claude Lorrain’s view of Delos, Leonardo’s Virgin of the Rocks, several versions of the Flight to Egypt, including one by William Blake, and more.
How her abduction by Hades to the underworld brought the seasons. Paintings by Rembrandt, Rubens, Rossetti, and others.
The daughter of a Jamaican slave, William Morris’s wife, three Greek cousins known as the Three Graces – all muses and models for Pre-Raphaelites.
Great Pre-Raphaelite women didn’t stand behind their partners, but in front of them, as their muses and models. Masterpieces with two stories to tell.
