The Blessed Damozel

Based on the poem and painting with the same title, by Dante Gabriel Rosetti

“The Blessed Damozel" is a poem written as a sequel to Poe's "The Raven" (Ian Lancashire, 2005) and it tells the beautiful yet tragic tale of how two lovers are separated by the death of the Damozel and how she wishes to enter paradise, but only with her beloved by her side. Rossetti takes this theme of separated lovers that are to be rejoined in heaven from Dante's Vita Nuova (Hae-in Kim, 2004) an author Gabriel Rosetti was especially interested in (Landow G., 2004).

The painting […] tells the story of a damsel (a young woman or maiden) who died young and went to heaven, and that is probably the reason for him calling the damsel as “blessed” right in the title. There, in heaven, she pined for her earthbound lover […] to be together again (liverpoolmuseums.org.uk). She is shown as she is described in the poem’s first stanza, leaning on the gold bar of heaven: “She had three lilies in her hand, and the stars in her hair were seven”, which can be seen also in the picture that the Damozel hold lilies, which is the symbol of purity (Landow G., 2006) and that symbolizes the Virgin's purity in the Annunciation scene, (stating that) in Christian art, form is thus the vehicle of spiritual meaning (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia).

But there’s also the quantity of lilies that matters, as it is portrayed both in poem and picture. The number of them it’s three and this number symbolizes the Trinity (God, Christ and the Holy Spirit) and also the three gifts of the Magi to Christ, and there were also three theological virtues (Faith, Hope and Love) (Crystal E., 2006) thus representing probably the unity, the completeness of the situation and the link of Rosetti with Christian iconography.

Following with the symbolism of numbers and with the represented objects in both art works, there are the stars, as Rosetti states in his poem that “[…] the stars in her hair were seven”, and we can see that there are also seven stars around the Damozel’s hair, and according to Christian tradition the number seven also represents perfection (Gray, D.).

The seven stars, which can also be found, for instance, in the frame of Holman Hunt's “The Scapegoat” (liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/picture-of-month), allude as well to Pre-Raphaelite artists' fusion of legends and classical ideas with Christian beliefs. On the other hand, the figure seven includes the only pure diagonal to be found amongst the numeral figures (ccru.net/zones), and this could also allude to the diagonal imaginary line that would bind the two lovers in the painting, which would go from her face in heaven to his face on earth.

There’s also the importance of number five, as it’s the quantity of angels that appear in the upper part of the painting (in heaven).

Number five has particularly strong anthropomorphic associations, due to its multiple connections with human biological organization. These are not restricted to the five digits per limb, but extend also to structural dimensions as varied as the five senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch), and the five spinal-levels (coccygeal, sacral, lumbar, dorsal, cervical) and in monotheistic traditions the number five is associated with doctrinal authority (ccru.net/zones/Zn5).

Regarding angels themselves, which appear in the picture, the word angel, in the Greek language, means "messenger", and they are some of the most misrepresented beings in symbolism (Gray, D.) and here, they may symbolize those who will deliver her messages, from heaven to earth, from her to him.

In this poem the separation of the two lovers is also one between life and death, and the only hope for their reunion is in their love.

Women and art share one important quality: beauty, and this is probably a common subject of both poem and painting. It is easy to see why women often served as personifications of art in Rossetti's work (liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/picture). In this particular work, Rossetti could well be suggesting that the love for art is the only link between life and death.

The male speaker has a vision that his beloved dead is grieving for him in heaven, but it is perhaps surprising that D.G. Rossetti perpetuates the notion of the rapt and dreaming woman at a time when women were working to claim their rights and the domestic sphere (Beana Byecroft, 2005).

The Pre-Raphaelites depicted the woman destroyed by various forms of love, whether unrequited, tragic or adulterous and essential to the Pre-Raphaelite art is a woman's face, a beautiful visage with large, luminescent eyes set in a web of long hair (Hae-In Kim, 2006).

We can see the before mentioned physical features both in the poem and the painting. Rosetti writes that “Her hair that lay along her back / Was yellow ripe corn” and in the painting especially as the Damozel has a long red-haired head. Doing so, Rosetti gives expression to the typical PRB stereotyped image of women. Something that can also be seen, for instance, in the painting entitled “Mariana” by John E. Millais, based on Lord Tennyson’s poem with the same title (Susie, 2002) although here the woman has her hair up in a bun.

Finally, I shall point out two more aspects, which are the frame of the painting and some of the words the poet also used in the poem.

On the one hand, the gold frame where the painting is framed may not have been designed by Rossetti. The heavy baroque frame and narrow columns are motifs that differ radically from his other frame designs, and the overall format is reminiscent of seventeenth-century stone memorial plaques on church walls. (liverpoolmuseums.org.uk), but it is explicitly mentioned in the poem when he writes that “And still she bow'd herself and stoop'd / Out of the circling charm; / Until her bosom must have made / The bar she lean'd on warm, / And the lilies lay as if asleep / Along her bended arm”, which links it with the beginning of the poem.

On the other hand, we can see how Rosetti includes not just mere symbols referring to Christianity but many and direct references to god, the virgin Mary or holy places. There is god who is several times referred to all along the poem “…one of God’s choristers”; “…rampart of God’s house…”, "There will I ask of Christ the Lord…” and so on, to Heaven itself , “…gold bar of heaven…” , “…it lies in Heaven…”; and eventually he explicitly mentions virgin Mary when he writes “…rose of Mary’s gift…”, which also proves the strong links pre-Raphaelite poets showed toward Christianity and its symbols.

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SOURCES:

- 2005, Ian Lancashire. RPO Dante Gabriel Rosetti. 3 March 2002. RPO Editors, Department of English, and University of Toronto Press. 4 Mayo 2006. <http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/1763.html>

- The Spiritual Depths of the Feminine Soul in Rossetti's "The Blessed Damozel". Hae-in Kim, English/History of Art 151, Pre-Raphaelites, Aesthetes, and Decadents. 15 October 2004. Brown University. 4 May 2006. <http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dgr/hikim5.html>

- Landow, George P. “Symbolism and Imagery in Dante Gabriel Rossetti's Poetry”. 26 November 2004. Victorianweb.org. National University of Singapore. 4 Mayo 2006.

< http://victorianweb.org/authors/dgr/image1.html>

- "Iconography." The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Columbia University Press., 2003. Answers.com. 5 May 2006. <http://www.answers.com/topic/iconography>

- Lady Lever Art Gallery. <http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/ladylever/collections/damozel.asp>

- Susie. “Raspberry World”. 3 April 2002. raspeberryworld.com. 5 May 2006. <http://www.raspberryworld.com/2002/04/this-painting-by-john-everett-millais.html>

- Representations of the Female Voice in Victorian Poetry. Breanna Byecroft '05, English 151. Autumn 2003. Brown University. <http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/ebb/byecroft14.html#damozel>

- Pre-Raphaelite Women. Elisabeth Lee. 21 January 1995 <http://www.victorianweb.org/gender/preraph.html>

- “The Pre-Raphaelite Women destroyed by Love in all its Forms and Fates”. Hae-In Kim '06, English/History of Art 151, Pre-Raphaelites, Aesthetes, and Decadents. 19 December 2004. Brown University. 5 May 2006.

<http://www.victorianweb.org/painting/prb/hikim12.html>

- The Spiritual Depths of the Feminine Soul in Rossetti's "The Blessed Damozel"

Hae-in Kim, English/History of Art 151, Pre-Raphaelites, Aesthetes, and Decadents, Brown University, 2004. 15 October 2004 <http://www.victorianweb.org/authors/dgr/hikim5.html>

- Numbers and their meanings. Ellie Crystal’s Metaphisical and Science Website. 5 May 2006. <http://www.crystalinks.com/numerology2.html>

- Christian Simbols and their meanings. Dough Gray, M. Div. 5 May 2006. <http://www.christiansymbols.net/stars_page1.htm>

- Lady Lever Art Gallery. World Museum of Liverpool.

<http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/picture-of-month/furtherReading.asp?id=127&venue=7>

- Cybernetic culture research unit. Zone Seven. ccru9@hotmail.com. 5 May 2006. <http://www.ccru.net/zones/Zn7.htm>

- Cybernetic culture research unit. Zone Five. http://www.ccru.net/zones/Zn5.htm

- Christian Simbols and their meanings. Dough Gray, M. Div. 5 May 2006. <http://www.christiansymbols.net/angels_page1.htm>

- Christian Simbols and their meanings. Dough Gray, M. Div. 5 May 2006. <http://www.christiansymbols.net/plants_page3.htm>

- Daniel Gabriel Rossetti - Technique in 'The Blessed Damozel'. World Museum of Liverpool. 5 May 2006. <http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/online/pre-raphaelites/damozel_technique.asp>

- Millais. The Modernist Journals Project. Brown University & University of Tulsa. 5 May 2006. <http://www.modjourn.brown.edu/Image/Millais/MarianaMoatedGrange.1850.jpg>