Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Dante's Dante




After recently watching and absolutely loving BBC’s Desperate Romantics, I've been obsessed with Dante Gabriel Rossetti's obsession with Dante Alighieri — particularly the story of Dante and Beatrice. Many of Rossetti’s paintings depicted himself and Lizzie Siddal as the two lovers. These images are from La Vita Nuova, translated by Rossetti and illustrated by Evelyn Paul (yes, I remain fascinated by her work). Amazing how similar her Beatrice resembles the copper-haired lovely Siddal as we know her from Rossetti's paintings.

And I had a nice little surprise looking through The Curtain of Forgetfulness — a small book written by William Lindsey and illustrated by Paul. It is a signed edition!!! The inside also reads that 1,000 were printed on handmade paper, 500 of which were for America and mine is copy 101.

Where does time go? Nearly October already:)

15 comments:

  1. I love him! thanks for showing us a few works, I did not know those ones
    Have you seen BBC The Pre raphaelites?

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  2. These works by Evelyn Paul were very influenced by Rossetti as you can see:)

    I've not seen The Pre-Raphaelites. Is it more documentary and less drama?

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  3. ah, wonderful! I'm so glad you turned me on to Evelyn Paul.

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  4. Ro - I found a bio for her recently and it mentioned there are no formal collections of her work - only exist as book illustrations.

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  5. I love reading about Dante, his sister and the pre-raphaelites.

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  6. lol yes this is a documentary, If you want, I can send it to you :)
    I thought it was Rossetti's works XD very impressive! I should have read more carefully your article :)
    I've just downloaded the first episode of Desperate Romantics and I looooove it, Thank you, thank you thank you!
    Is this serial inspired by lucinda hawksley's book Lizzie Siddal?

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  7. Clever Pup,
    Me too, and I keep discovering tidbits I didn't know!

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  8. St. Ainolopa
    Is the documentary somewhere online for viewing/downloading?

    Apparently, Rossetti was Evelyn Paul's biggest influence both in style and subject matter.
    Here is a short bio:
    http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/speel/illus/epaul.htm

    I'd imagine the inspiration for the BBC series came from many sources - both historical reference and fiction. Isn't it visually lovely?

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  9. ooo yes it is!!! It is so beautiful, I love that serial a feast for the eyes!!
    You have to download it on torrent, I can send you the torrent files, there are 3 parts.
    Thank you thank you, I love your blog :)

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  10. I'm so behind on my Desperate Romantic viewing! I have so enjoyed all three episodes I have watched so far!

    this is a beautiful collection of images...

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  11. Jen - I still have left-over laughter from some of the brilliant lines in DR. And I want the apartment that Rossetti + Lizzie shared.

    Thank you!

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  12. Have not heard of Desparate Romantics. Will have to catch up! Thanks for sharing!
    Kirsten

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  13. Evelyn Paul's images are so beautiful!
    Thanks so much.

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  14. Kirsten
    Desperate Romantics was a BBC production, 6 episodes long about the Brotherhood. Personally, I loved it, but many found the historical inaccuracies hard to swallow. Hope you get a chance to see it. And enjoy!

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  15. Cathy
    Wish her body of work was larger so I could see more.

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