Mariana - Dante Gabriel Rossetti
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Description
A portrait of Jane Morris as the Shakespearean character Mariana, painted by Dante Gabriel Rossetti in 1870.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti painted this work in 1870, drawing inspiration from the character of Mariana in William Shakespeare's play, Measure for Measure. The subject is Jane Morris, a frequent model for the artist during this period. She sits in a state of quiet contemplation, her hands occupied with needlework, while a musician plays a lute in the background. The composition focuses on the psychological state of the figure, who waits in isolation.
Rossetti employs a deep, saturated palette, dominated by the intense blue of the subject's gown. The fabric is rendered with attention to its weight and sheen, contrasting with the muted, shadowed tones of the interior setting. The inclusion of the lute player introduces a narrative element, suggesting a moment of stillness within a larger story of longing. The painting reflects the artist's interest in literary themes and his specific approach to the female form, characterised by long necks, heavy eyelids, and thick, wavy hair.
This work is part of a series of paintings by Rossetti that explore the theme of the solitary woman. Unlike the earlier Pre-Raphaelite works that often featured bright, clear colours and sharp detail, this piece uses softer edges and a more atmospheric application of paint. The focus remains on the emotional resonance of the subject, captured through her gaze and posture. The decorative elements, such as the embroidery and the lute, provide texture to the scene without distracting from the central figure. It remains a representative example of Rossetti's later style, where the influence of Venetian painting becomes more apparent in his handling of colour and light.
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Each print is produced to order using 12-colour giclée printing on FSC-certified archival paper. Designed in Britain and printed at your nearest production hub to reduce waste and speed up delivery.
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Specific Features
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Materials & Sizing
Museum-grade giclée on FSC-certified archival matte paper, with framed and canvas options.
- Paper sizes: A4, A3, A2, A1, A0 and B2 (50×70 cm)
- Canvas: XS (20×30 cm) to Large (60×90 cm)
- Frames: black, natural wood, dark wood or white
Mariana - Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Artist Biography
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
He was born in London to an Italian political exile and named after the author of the Divine Comedy. His father was a professor of Italian at King's College. The household ran on poetry, politics, and argument. Rossetti wrote verse throughout his life and considered himself a poet as much as a painter.
His early paintings are small, bright, and meticulously detailed in the Pre-Raphaelite manner. The Girlhood of Mary Virgin and Ecce Ancilla Domini have the flat, jewelled quality of medieval altarpieces. After 1860 the style changed. The paintings became larger, more sensual, and dominated by the face and figure of Jane Burden, who was William Morris's wife.
The relationship between Rossetti, Morris, and Jane is one of the more uncomfortable triangles in art history. Morris married her. Rossetti painted her obsessively. She modelled for Proserpine, La Pia de' Tolomei, and dozens of other works in which she appears as a mythological woman trapped in an unwanted situation. Whether the affair was physical remains debated. Morris, characteristically, said nothing publicly and channelled his feelings into wallpaper.
Rossetti buried a manuscript of his poems in his wife Lizzie Siddal's coffin when she died of a laudanum overdose in 1862. Seven years later he had the coffin exhumed to retrieve them. He published the poems. He was addicted to chloral hydrate by then and increasingly paranoid. He died in 1882, at fifty-three.
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