Page:William Blake in his relation to Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1911).djvu/49

— 49 — by the adjective "sloshy" which was applied to all indefinite, feeble and superficial work.

Rossetti however did not share Blake's antipathy to the Venetian masters, whose colouring deeply affected his paintings, neither did he partake of Blake's admiration for Michael Angelo to whose pictures, which he saw in Paris, he had a great aversion.

Except the abuse of the afore-named painters he also found here the rule not to generalize, but to execute everything, down to the smallest detail, with equal care. We see how he followed this rule in his first pictures e.g. in his "Girlhood of the Virgin" we find a trellis work overgrown with leaves executed with minute care; exactly the same carefulness is bestowed on the many accessories of a symbolic nature which are found on this picture e.g.; the dove with a golden halo round its head; the lily and the scroll on which we find written the words: "Tot dolores, tot gaudia". Though afterwards Rossetti did not exhibit these characteristics to the same extent, yet we always find that great care has been taken in the execution of the details, as may be seen in the dream-like little landscapes which often form the background of his pictures. Such a mystic landscape we find in Dante's Dream seen through a window at the back of the pictures, also in the Blessed Damozel we have little peeps of Heaven; in both pictures the landscapes are beautiful examples of minuteness of execution.

Like Blake Rossetti thought the typical in art of a higher effect than the individual, like him he sought to free himself from the model. This has given rise to the idea that Rossetti used as his models only two types of heads, that of his wife and that of Mrs. Morris. This is a great error. He painted from seventeen models in all. Mrs. Beyer sat for the picture Joan of Arc; Mrs. Hannay for Dante's Dream; Miss Herbet, the actress, for Bocca Baciata etc. Rossetti omitted accidental individual differences, and this produced together with his favourite mannerisms, the long necks, over-slim hands and over-full lips, the impression of his painting for ever the same woman.