The Love of Beauty. (Sonnet.) Ford Madox Brown 1 1849 December
a5b5a5a5b5 b5a5c5d5d5d5c5d5 iambic sonnet
<artist/> <location/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnpictorial> <citnmythic> <name/> <culture/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnmythic> <citnhistorical> <event/> <place/> <date/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnhistorical> <citnautobiographical> <name/> <place/> <date/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnautobiographical> <citnscenic> <place/> <date/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnscenic> </listcitn> </source> <commentaries> <head>Commentary</head> <section type="intro"> <head>Introduction</head> <p>On 19 December 1849 as the first number of <title level="wrk"> <hi rend="i">The Germ</hi> was being prepared for press, WMR noted in his PRB diary that Ford Madox Brown brought this sonnet for the number (see WMRprb 34). Unlike the poems by Woolner, which opened the first number of <hi rend="i">The Germ</hi> immediately preceding this sonnet, Brown makes no effort to construct a pastiche of a more primitive poetic style. The formal contemporaneity of the sonnet underscores its relation to Pre-Raphaelitism as a set of cultural attitudes consciously seeking inspiration in earlier materials.

The argument of the sestet is especially interesting. It intimates a relation between the artist and an ideal Nature that is mediated by an intense love-relation with a beloved woman—in this case, Boccaccio's Fiammetta. The thought parallels a characteristic pattern of DGR's thinking.

The historical Fiammetta was reputed to be Maria d'Aquino, the daughter of the Count and Countess of Aquino. He is said to have met her and fallen in love with her in 1338 when he saw her in church. This kind of biographical speculation was regularly accepted by nineteenth-century readers like Brown and DGR, although now the formal convention of such a love-relation has thrown these matters into serious doubt.

Textual History: Composition

Textual History: Revision

Production History

Reception

Iconographic

Printing History

First printed in The Germ 1, page 10.

Pictorial

Historical

Literary

DGR took an intense interest in Boccaccio's Fiammetta, who is his Beatrice figure. He included six translations of Boccaccio's sonnets in Appendix II of <hi rend="i">The Earlu Italian Poets</hi> , including three sonnets dealing with Fiammetta. There are as well two major pictorial works, Fiammetta (1866) and A Vision of Fiammetta (1878), the latter a double work accompanied by a sonnet, Fiammetta. (For a Picture.) .

Translation

Autobiographical

Bibliographic

Fredeman 151-153

Germ text royal Mary: i.e., Maria d'Aquino chief friend: probably Love. The sentence seems to be recalling Boccaccio's sonnet “Il folgor de' begli occhi, el qual m'avvampa”. Germ text The Germ (British Library Copy, first issue) William Michael Rossetti 1850 January 1 0 The Germ (1901 Facsimile Reprint, issue 1) William Michael Rossetti 1901 0