''Pia de' Tolomei'' is an

oil painting Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest ...

on canvas by English artist

Dante Gabriel Rossetti Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882), generally known as Dante Gabriel Rossetti (), was an English poet, illustrator, painter, translator and member of the Rossetti family. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhoo ...

, painted around 1868 and now in the

Spencer Museum of Art The Spencer Museum of Art is an art museum operated by the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. Accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, the Spencer Museum seeks to "...present its collection as a living archive that motivates object- ...

, on the campus of the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. T ...

Lawrence, Kansas Lawrence is the county seat of Douglas County, Kansas, Douglas County, Kansas, United States, and the sixth-largest city in the state. It is in the northeastern sector of the state, astride Interstate 70, between the Kansas River, Kansas and Waka ...

History

This work was painted at the start of Rossetti's affair with

Jane Morris Jane Morris (née Burden; 19 October 1839 – 26 January 1914) was an English embroiderer in the Arts and Crafts movement and artists' model who embodied the Pre-Raphaelite ideal of beauty. She was a model and muse to her husband Willia ...

, who modelled for the picture. As he was to do with ''

Beata Beatrix ''Beata Beatrix'' is a painting completed in several versions by Pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The painting depicts Beatrice Portinari from Dante Alighieri's 1294 poem '' La Vita Nuova'' at the moment of her death. The first vers ...

'' (1870), Rossetti chose a tale by

Dante Aligheri Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...

(from ''

Purgatorio ''Purgatorio'' (; Italian for "Purgatory") is the second part of Dante's ''Divine Comedy'', following the '' Inferno'' and preceding the '' Paradiso''. The poem was written in the early 14th century. It is an allegory telling of the climb of D ...

'') to illustrate his love for his model. The story tells of a woman whose husband imprisoned and later poisoned her: Rossetti wanted the world to believe the fantasy with which he was deluding himself – that

William Morris William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was a British textile designer, poet, artist, novelist, architectural conservationist, printer, translator and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts Movement. He w ...

kept Jane against her will. He continued this theme, as shown in '' Proserpine''. Rossetti not only drew Jane exhaustively, he also choreographed photographic sessions of her and used the photographs as preliminary sketches for drawings. Amongst other representations of her, Rossetti depicts Jane as Proserpine,

Queen Guinevere Guinevere ( ; cy, Gwenhwyfar ; br, Gwenivar, kw, Gwynnever), also often written in Modern English as Guenevere or Guenever, was, according to Arthurian legend, an early-medieval queen of Great Britain and the wife of King Arthur. First ment ...

and

Desdemona Desdemona () is a character in William Shakespeare's play ''Othello'' (c. 1601–1604). Shakespeare's Desdemona is a Venetian beauty who enrages and disappoints her father, a Venetian senator, when she elopes with Othello, a Moorish Venetian ...

– all of whom were at the mercy of men. Jane appears disproportionately large in most of Rossetti's pictures. The background is immaterial as long as the viewer focuses on the beauty of her face. In ''Pia de' Tolomei'' her elongated neck seems almost dislocated, and the whiteness of her skin shines out, defying the viewer to pay attention to any other aspects of the painting. Miller's hair colour is misrepresented in the painting. Her natural colour was dark brown, yet Rossetti paints it with an auburn tinge – closer to

Lizzie Siddal Elizabeth Eleanor Siddall (25 July 1829 – 11 February 1862), better known as Elizabeth Siddal, was an English artist, poet, and artists' model. Significant collections of her artworks can be found at Wightwick Manor and the Ashmolean. Sidda ...

's hair colour than Miller's. Also, her hands are twisted and intertwined in a peculiar way.O. Doughty, ''A Victorian Romantic: Dante Gabriel Rossetti'' London: Frederick Muller (1949).

Gallery

File:Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Arthur's Tomb (1860).jpg, ''Arthur's Tomb'' (1854) File:Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Desdemona's Death Song.JPG, ''Desdemona's Death Song'' (c. 1878–1881) File:Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Proserpine.jpg, '' Proserpine'' (1874)

References

External links

The Rossetti Archive

Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery's Pre-Raphaelite Online Resource

Spencer Museum of Art, Kansas
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pia de' Tolomei (painting) 1868 paintings Works based on Purgatorio Paintings by Dante Gabriel Rossetti University of Kansas Paintings in Kansas Birds in art Books in art Paintings based on works by Dante Alighieri

History

Gallery

See also

References

Further reading

External links