READING MODULE 402 / MARCH / 2006BY: GASPAR JULIO NAVARRO AMADOR
SUBJECT & POEM: Pre-Raphaelite Period. Comparison of Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s
painting and poem ‘Proserpine’
PROSERPINE
Reduced version of the
painting. Click on the picture
for full-scale version
1 Afar away the light that brings
cold cheer
2 Unto this wall, - one instant and no more
3 Admitted at my distant palace-door
4 Afar the flowers of Enna from this drear
5 Dire fruit, which, tasted once, must thrall me here.
6 Afar those skies from this Tartarean grey
7 That chills me: and afar how far away,
8 The nights
that shall become the days that were.
9 Afar from mine own self I seem,
and wing
10 Strange ways in thought, and listenfor a sign:
11 And still some heart unto some soul doth pine,
12 O, Whose sounds mine inner sense in fain to bring,
13 Continually together murmuring) --
14 'Woe me for thee, unhappy Proserpine'.
D. G. Rossetti
(Ref 1)
This paper focuses on the
Pre-Raphaelite period. The author chosen has been Dante Gabriel Rossetti. In
this paper there will be an explanation of all the characteristics inherent to
the painting and what it is reflected from this
painting, in terms of written text, which is shown in the poem.
In
both, the painting and the poem are meant to reflect
reality from the author’s point of view. The rhetoric figure most
representative is the metaphor in Rossetti’s work. These images are in
interaction between them and therefore what the author sees in his own
painting, it is reflected in his poem and vice versa.
The
reason why there has been chosen this particular D. G. Rossetti’s work, is
because it is one of his latest creations. Hence, it shows in a better way the
maturity of the author and draws perfectly the symbolism, the aesthetic style
and the images, which correspond to this period. (Ref 2)
At
first glance, there is a very accurate representation of a woman in front of a
wall of what seems to be a garden, because of the plants behind her. This woman
also seems to be in a relaxed mood, although there is dynamic movement, which is represented in some main elements such as the fruit she
is holding in her hand.
This
fruit has been bitten and tried by the woman, which draws a parallelism between
‘Proserpine’ and the scene in which Eve tries the forbidden apple, in Adam and
Eve’s story directly related to sin, decadence and charged with sexual meaning.
This
is also a critic to the religious amalgamation in
There
is smoke coming from an incense burning. The incense
burning is a symbol of devotion to a deity, in this case to a goddess,
represented by the woman, and the ivy branch may be taken
as a symbol of the author’s memory. (Ref 1)
Other
of the main elements is the light behind her. It shows the situation of the
girl. She is between two walls of a corridor and there is a window that is opened in front of her. From this window the light comes
through. This light inside a dark and closed corridor is also metaphorical in
the sense that, it represents the way out from a close space or situation, the
release from something that oppresses you.
The light represents the author’s past days, which
for him were better and now he feels he is in a kind of hell imprisoned. The
whole painting emphasizes the shades in contrast with the light. Which is another of the important features of the Pre-Raphaelites.
(Ref 3)
This
accuracy in painting is one very important characteristic of the Pre-Raphaelite
authors, who seeked the photographic standard representation of any real
situation, in nowadays ‘photographic terms’. (Ref 3). On the top right corner of the
painting there is an inscription written by the author, with a clear
explanation of the situation:
‘She is represented in a gloomy
corridor of her palace, with the fatal fruit in her hand. As she passes, a
gleam strikes on the wall behind her from some inlet suddenly opened, and
admitting for a moment the sight of the upper world; and she glances furtively
towards it, immersed in thought. The incense-burner stands beside her as the
attribute of a goddess. The ivy branch in the background may be taken as a
symbol of clinging memory.’(Ref 1)
Thus, the metaphors external to the woman that can be identified from the painting are the following:
The gloomy corridor is on the one hand a space of
life and gloominess, but on the other hand is oppressive, dark and motionless.
This represents the real life of the author in those days, which is as
suffocating as this inner corridor. This symbolizes the situation of
Finally
the woman represents the archetypal figure of a woman in the Pre-Raphaelite
Period. These women model used to be of a characteristic beauty, they look
rich, raven hair and long elegant neck. The woman’s representative gaze to the
open window symbolizes what this woman means to him, his whole support. That is, her kind of beauty in that kind of hell.
(Ref 3-4)
The title ‘Proserpine’ makes reference to ‘Persephone a daughter of Zeus and Demeter,
abducted by Hades to be queen of Underground, but allowed to return to the
surface of the earth for part of the year’. (Ref 3)
In the first two lines of the poem, the author makes reference to the
light that comes in from the window. The image is Rossetti’s feeling, which is
dark and sorrowful, as well as the place in which the woman walks, and the ‘light’ is what he remembers from his
life. ‘This wall’ symbolizes
‘The flowers of Enna’ (line 4),
symbolizes the paradise, the place with light, far from where he is at the
moment, and the ‘fruit’ (line 5) is the mean through which he has lost that
paradise, his past life, his last wife, etc.
In the line 6, he contrasts that lost paradise with ‘the Tartarean’,
which is the hell in the Greek mythology, under Hades, and where even the Gods
of the
(Ref 5)
In the line 8, the metaphor is that ‘the
night’ related to darkness, gloomy, it has a negative connotation. It is
the moment in which the author is living. This contrast with ‘the day’, related to clearness, escape,
positive, is his past. There is also a reflection related to the pass of the
years, and the loss of the youth.
In lines 9-10, the author tells us that he thinks maybe too much, and
probably he is loosing his mind:
‘Afar from mine own self I seem, and wing
Strange ways in thought, and listen for a sign’
In line 11, the representation of his lover is ‘some heart’, and he is represented by ‘some soul doth pine’. The last lines are
a demand to his lover to, in a way, pray for him, because he thinks he is wasted away, and at the same time he feels sorrow for his
lover because of the same reason, it is a reciprocal feeling.
In both the poem and the painting, the contrasts between light and
darkness, beauty and ugliness, life and death, freedom and imprisonment, are
all perfectly illustrated. The general tendency to reproduce the beauty of a
muse in her best moment, shows the need of this
generation to find a perfect referent, an ideal, which contrasts with what they
see through the reality of their everyday life.
REFERENCES
1
- George P. Lanndow, Proserpine by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882),
22/08/2001
http://www.victorianweb.org/painting/dgr/drawings/5.html
15/01/2006
2
- George P. Lanndow, The
English versus Italian Inspiration and Sources of Rossetti's Works, 2000,
http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dgr/laurent/laurent7.html
15/01/2006
3
- George P. Lanndow, Pre-Raphaelites: An
Introduction, 1998
http://www.victorianweb.org/painting/prb/1.html
15/01/2006
4
- George P. Lanndow, Rossetti’s Real Fair Ladies:
Lizzie, Fanny, and Jane, 18/12/2004
http://www.victorianweb.org/victorian/painting/dgr/paintings/healey12.html
15/01/2006
5
- webmaster@todohistoria.com,
2006
http://www.todohistoria.com/mitologia/letras.htm
15/01/2006