Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Study for 'Giotto Painting the Portrait of Dante' 1852
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The medieval Italian poet Dante Alighieri inspired some of Blake's and Rossetti's greatest pictures. They each saw Dante's writings in a very different light. Blake felt that they were rooted too much in 'This World'. Rossetti was attuned to Dante's view of love as a sublime, spiritual experience. Rossetti's father was a Dante scholar and it was through his work, not Blake's illustrations, that he came to Dante's poetry. But Blake was still a powerful influence on the young Rossetti. In 1847 he bought Blake's Notebook. It contained outspoken comments on established old masters… (read more)
August 2004
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