Dialogue I., in the House of Kalon Work John Orchard 1 1850
prose dialogue <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>The dialogue is by John Orchard (d. 1850), a young enthusiast of DGR and the PRB about whom not much is known. Orchard sent the work to DGR in February 1850 as the first in a proposed series. He died before completing the others (see Fredeman, <title level="bk"> <hi rend="i">The P.R.B. Journal</hi> 56). DGR and the other PRBs were much impressed with the piece, which is in fact quite interesting. DGR's admiration is apparent from the notice he attached as a kind of preface to the dialogue in <hi rend="i">The Germ</hi> IV (146-167) where both were published. WMR has a long notice of the work in his 1901 reprint Introduction (pages 25-26). The dialogue is perhaps the most trenchant statement of Pre-Raphaelite ideas published in <hi rend="i">The Germ</hi> .

Orchard wrote a pair of interesting sonnets on DGR's <hi rend="i">Girlhood of Mary Virgin</hi> picture. The gesture was very much in the spirit of the Early Italian poets and artists that the PRB, like Orchard, admired. They also supply an interesting mirror to DGR's own sonnets for the picture. (The sonnets were first published by Fredeman from a manuscript in the University of British Columbia Library: see Fredeman, <hi rend="i">Journal of the P. R. B.</hi> , 200 ). Of the dialogue WMR shrewdly remarked in his journal entry for 20 March 1850 that in “treating herein chiefly of early Christian—or as he terms it, Pre-Raffaele—Art” he “seem[ed] to out-P.R. the P. R. B.” (see Fredeman, <hi rend="i">Journal of the P. R. B.</hi> , 64 ).

See also Orchard's poem “On a Whit-sunday morn in the month of May” published in the same issue as his dialogue on art, and printed immediately after it ( <hi rend="i">The Germ</hi> IV (167-169)).

Textual History: Composition

Orchard wrote the dialogue in February and March 1850, but did not complete it before his death.

Textual History: Revision

Production History

Reception

Iconographic

Printing History

Published in <hi rend="i">The Germ</hi> no. 4, pages 146-167.

Pictorial

Historical

Literary

Translation

Autobiographical

Bibliographic

Germ text Solomon's seal: A plant with a green and white flower. Solomon's seal was often used to seal and close up wounds. Astartes and Molochs: Astarte was the Phoenician goddess of sexual love, the equivalent of Aphrodite. Moloch was a Canaanite god to whom children were sacrificed as burnt offerings; his name has since become a metaphor for any object to which horrible sacrifices are made. Magdalene hospitals: Asylums established for the reformation of prostitutes. Phidias: Greek sculptor and artist, 5th century B.C. Orcagna, Ghiberti, Masaccio, Lippi, Fra Beato Angelico, and Francia: These are some of the most important figures associated with the development of Florentine Renaissance art in the 14th and 15th centuries. They are listed here (roughly) in chronological order (Orcagna was born in 1308; Francia died in 1517). These painters appealed to the PRB variously for their iconographic composition, their use of color, and their treatment of religious subjects. Although they are all technically “Pre-Raphaelite”, the work of the later painters already demonstrates the technical innovations of the Renaissance. For example, Masaccio is credited with introducing systematic perspective to painting; Dead Sea apples: the apples of Sodom, said to grow by the Dead Sea and to have a fair appearance but taste of ashes; Alcibiadeses and Phyrnes: Alcibiades, Greek statesman and warrior (450?-404? B.C.) and the pupil of Socrates, he was notorious for his extravagant self-indulgence; Phyrne was a legendary Greek prostitute (4th c. B.C.). Ithuriel's golden spear: Book IV of <hi rend="i">Paradise Lost</hi> relates how a touch from the spear of the angel Ithuriel transformed Satan, disguised as a toad, back into his true form Grisildis, or Una, or Genevieve: All three are legendary saintly women. Griselda is the heroine of Chaucer's “Clerk's Tale”, and her complete submission to her husband Walter is an allegory for human submission to God's will. Una, a character in Spenser's Faerie Queene, is an allegorical figure for Truth and Religion. Genevieve is the patron saint of Paris; her faith prevented that city from destruction by Attila. darkness which might be felt: Exodus 10:21; Squarcione: Paduan artist (1367-1468), recognized more as a teacher than for his own works of art, Squarcione is credited with bringing knowledge of the Florentine artists and an interest in classical antiquity to Northern Italy; Mantegna: Andrea Mantegna, Northern Italian painter and engraver (1431-1506), he apprenticed to Squarcione early in his career. Mantegna later became a court painter to the Gonzagas in Mantua. DGR's sonnet for Mantegna's <hi rend="i">Parnassus</hi> was first published in the same number of <hi rend="i">The Germ</hi> as Orchard's dialogue; Academy of the Medici: the first true art academy, founded by Duke Cosimo de'Medici in Florence in 1562, at the instigation of Vasari. Michelangelo and Duke Cosimo headed the Academy, and elected its 36 members. Founded in part to emancipate artists from the oppressive guild system, the Academy won worldwide recognition in its day; David: Jacques Louis-David (1748-1825), great Neo-classical French painter.
Germ text The Germ (British Library Copy, issue 4) William Michael Rossetti 1850 April 30 0 The Germ (British Library Copy, issue 4) William Michael Rossetti 1850 April 30 0 The Germ (1901 Facsimile Reprint, issue 4) William Michael Rossetti 1901 0 The Germ (1901 Facsimile Reprint, issue 4) William Michael Rossetti 1901 0