DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI
(artehistoria/frames)
(1828-1882)
Dante Gabriel Rossetti was one of the most unusual and original of all Victorian artists.
He was a foundering member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. In his middle years he created vivid watercolours and intricate drawings on themes of love and morality. He is perhaps best known for his images of powerful and mysterious women. These dreamlike and erotic paintings have a magic that still speaks to us today.
Rossetti created a new kind of art. He used colour, design and symbolism to suggest a mood and to convey the ideas that were important to him; female virtue, beauty, sensuality, love, death and destiny.
(liverpoolmuseums.org)
In 1863, Dante Gabriel Rossetti began painting his first version of "Lady Lilith". Lady Lilith" is one of the many "mirror pictures" completed by Rossetti during this period. Others include "Fazio's Mistress," "Woman Combing Her Hair," and "Morning Music," all paintings which focus on a central female figure rapt in contemplation of her own beauty.
(feminism.eserver.org)
With regard to this paper, we are going to analyse the poem “Lady Lilith” (1868) in contrast with its painting “Lady Lilith” (1868).
(geocities/Wellesley) àtext
(rossettiarchive.org) àpainting
LADY LILITH
Of Adam's first wife, Lilith, it is told
(The witch he loved before the gift of Eve,)
That, ere the snake's, her sweet tongue could decieve,
And her enchanted hair was the first gold.
And still she sits, young while the earth is old, 5
And, subtly of herself contemplative,
Draws men to watch the bright net she can weave,
Till heart and body and life are in its hold.The rose and poppy are her flowers; for where
Is he not found, O Lilith, whom shed scent
And soft-shed kisses and soft sleep shall snare?
Lo! as that youth's eyes burned at thime, so went
Thy spell through him, and left his straight neck bent, 10
And round his heart one strangling golden hair.
What does the poem want to communicate to us?
First of all, we must say that there is only one person speaking in this poem and he is telling us a legend, whose main character is a woman called Lilith.
The author is telling us that Lilith was the wife of Adam. He says that he felt in love with her, but she was a “witch” (line 2) and we should be careful because “ere the snake´s, her sweet tongue could deceive” (line 3) it means that she can catch us like the snake does with its tongue, taking all that is around it, and she can do it through her beauty, through “her enchanted hair” (line 4); through her particular power.
The poet says that the woman has sat down, she feels young while all the people are contemplating her. Also he tells us that she “draws men to watch the bright net she can weave, till heart and body and life are in its hold” (lines 7-8). With these two lines, the poet wants to say that this woman attracts men to watch the light until the heart and body are completely in her hands. In other words, Lilith attracts them to watch this and so they are blinded by her beauty and this is the reason why they contemplate her. Here the introduction of the word “body” (line 8) is so important, since we understand that the body is out of control and it is guided by its own emotions and feelings and not by its mind.
The poem tells us as well that she is surrounded by flowers “rose and poppy” (line 1 of the 2nd paragraph) which give off perfume and aroma that can catch us by its fragrance. Therefore, she can catch us by her long hair “strangling golden hair” (line 6 of the 2nd paragraph).
All she does is like a “spell” (line 5 of the 2nd paragraph) that makes possible that we fall in her hands.
Compared to his painting, we notice that in it there is a great and good resemblance and similarity. The painting reflects all that the poem says perfectly, by means of the paint and colours.
The first impression we perceive is her sexuality; we can see a beautiful woman who is looking at herself in a small mirror. She shows some part of her body, her hands, her face, her neck, her shoulders, her bust.
Looking at it carefully, we notice that she has sat down in a beautiful and comfortable coach with a relaxing posture. She is alone, in calmness, without anyone to disturb her. She looks laid-back, clear, and quiet, she is only looking at herself, and she does not worry about anything.
We can see that she is surrounded by many flowers that are spread throughout her room. We can see roses behind her and in her boudoir, “they are cold and white roses; symbols of sterile passion envelop the top right of the painting and spread out across the line of Lilith's hair”.
(feminism.eserver.org)
Also, there is a poppy besides her. “It is a symbol of death. The space is at once realistic and mythic. There is both an interior boudoir space and a sheltered exterior alcove”.
(feminism.eserver.org)
Another important object to analyse is the mirror located in the top left. “We know it is a mirror because it reflects the candles before it. It is not a window into some other world”.
(feminism.eserver.org)
We have to say that the red colour in this painting is so relevant. We see it in the poppy, in the ribbon, and in her lips. It is a symbol of love, of woman, of femininity, of sexuality, of sensuality, of passion.
Indeed, it is a symbol of feminity her too long hair, moreover she wears it loose. According to Bullen, “Lilith's sexual availability is more prominently signalled by "the absence of corsetry, tight-lacing, and other marks of bourgeois moral rectitude". Bullen cites that “the corset is "an ever-present monitor individually bidding its wearer to exercise self-restraint: it is evidence of a well- disciplined mind and well-regulated feelings. Her hair loose and corset absent, this Lilith is assuredly a symbol of open sexuality. It is said that Lilith´s hair indicates an excess of sexuality.”
(feminism.eserver.org)
Lady Lilith is one of the many mirror pictures. Some people think that the mirror works of Rossetti, like this one we are analysing, “opened the way for a whole series of paintings in the 1860s of narcissistic female figures, each with potentially fatal characteristics”. It was J.B. Bullen who said that.
(feminism.eserver.org)
Jane Ussher says that Lady Lilith “stands as a classic example of the artistic representation of this passionate, fearful woman. . . It is a painting of a beautiful, almost haughty woman whose hand toys with her luxurious long hair as she gazes unsmiling at her own reflection in a mirror. She is engaged and satisfied with herself, not with any male voyeur. She is sexual, dangerously seductive, and does not give the appearance of an acquiescent femininity which will be easily satisfied. . . Fear of and desire for 'woman' is incarnated in one painting. She is both sexual and selfish, gazing upon herself with satisfaction, symbolizing her rejection of 'man'”.
(feminism.eserver.org)
She is considered and labelled as a “witch” because she is cruel and castrating, she has power and she is strong.
Also, H.C. Marillier says that Lilith´s appearance in this painting establishes her as the embodiment of carnal loveliness.
He maintains all we have already said: “A beautiful woman, splendidly and voluptuously formed, is leaning back on a couch combing her long fair hair, while with cold dispassionateness she surveys her features in a hand mirror. . . She herself was a serpent first, and knows the gift of fascination. Bowered in roses, robed in white flowing draperies that slip and reveal the swelling contour of her bust and shoulders, no painter has ever captured like this the elemental power of carnal loveliness”.
(feminism.eserver.org)
In short, what we have found in common between the poem and the painting is that in the poem the painting is reflected and in the painting is reflected the poem. So one explains the other, and vice versa. Lady Lilith arouses the desire of men but at the same time she threatens them with her power.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
( C) 2001 Ediciones Dolmen, S.L.
http://www.artehistoria.com/frames.htm?http://www.artehistoria.com/genios/pintores/3174.htm
Visited on February 26, 2006)
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/exhibitions/rossetti/index.asp
Visited on February 26, 2006
http://feminism.eserver.org/theory/papers/lilith/ladylil.html
Última modificación 2005-02-11 10:00 AM
Visited on February 26, 2006
http://www.geocities.com/Wellesley/7371/lady_lilith.html
Visited on February 26, 2006
http://www.rossettiarchive.org/docs/s205.rap.html
© Delaware Art Museum, Samuel and Mary R. Bancroft Memorial
Visited on February 26, 2006
