Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Roman de la Rose

1864

Image released under Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-ND (3.0 Unported)

License this image

Not on display

Artist: Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1828–1882
Medium: Watercolour on paper
Dimensions: Support: 343 × 343 mm
Collection: Tate
Acquisition: Presented by Andrew Bain 1925
Reference: N04089

Display caption

Rossetti's inspiration for this watercolour was the thirteenth-century French poem of the same name, which is a complex allegory about love and loss. The picture's shallow depth, and its rich decoration, are clearly inspired by medieval illuminated manuscripts, which Rossetti was viewing in the British Museum and elsewhere. The rapt, embracing couple are typical of Rossetti's work at this time, their union blessed by the sweep of the angel's wing. The watercolour derived from an earlier design for the frontispiece of Rossetti's Early Italian Poets, a collection of his translations.

Gallery label, August 2004

Does this text contain inaccurate information or language that you feel we should improve or change? We would like to hear from you.

Explore

architecture(41,338)
- garden structures(1,947)
- - garden(1,198)
emotions, concepts and ideas(16,874)
- emotions and human qualities(5,366)
- - love(513)
history(5,803)
- politics and society(2,370)
- - period: Middle Ages(45)
literature and fiction(3,157)
- literature (not Shakespeare)(2,297)
- - Chaucer, Geoffrey, ‘The Romaunt of the Rose’(2)
nature(45,213)
- plants and flowers(2,727)
- - rose(126)
objects(23,378)
- fine arts and music(3,744)
- - instrument, psaltery(2)
people(35,142)
- actions: expressive(2,655)
- - kissing(91)
- actions: postures and motions(9,220)
- - bending forward(355)
  - kneeling(505)
- adults(22,736)
- - man(10,497)
  - woman(9,056)
religion and belief(8,357)
- universal religious imagery(862)
- - angel(262)
society(34,906)
- sex and relationships(5,329)
- - couple(1,297)

You might like

Dante Gabriel Rossetti Arthur’s Tomb

1860
Dante Gabriel Rossetti Paolo and Francesca da Rimini

1855
Dante Gabriel Rossetti St George and Princess Sabra

1862
Dante Gabriel Rossetti The Chapel before the Lists

1857–64
Dante Gabriel Rossetti The Tune of the Seven Towers

1857
Dante Gabriel Rossetti How Sir Galahad, Sir Bors and Sir Percival Were Fed with the Sanct Grael; but Sir Percival’s Sister Died by the Way

1864
Dante Gabriel Rossetti The Wedding of St George and Princess Sabra

1857
Dante Gabriel Rossetti The Adoration

1858–64

View by appointment
Dante Gabriel Rossetti Dante’s Dream at the Time of the Death of Beatrice

1856
Dante Gabriel Rossetti The Blue Closet

1857
Dante Gabriel Rossetti Hesterna Rosa

1853

View by appointment
Dante Gabriel Rossetti The Palace of Art, engraved by the Dalziel Brothers

published 1857
Dante Gabriel Rossetti St Catherine

1857
Dante Gabriel Rossetti The Girlhood of Mary Virgin

1848–9

On display at Tate Britain part of Walk Through British Art
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Bt Lovers in a Garden

?1863

View by appointment

In the shop

Browse the shop