Mnemosyne Lamp of Memory Ricordanza Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1 © Delaware Art Museum, Samuel and Mary R. Bancroft Memorial Mnemosyne Lamp of Memory Ricordanza DGR 1876-1881 (circa) R.A., 1883 (no.315); R.A. Winter, 1906 (no.119) Delaware Art Museum Frederick R. Leyland; Sold at the Leyland sale at Christie's, May 28, 1892 (lot 49) for £325; W. Connal; Blakeslee Galleries, New York, 1908; bought from Agnew in 1916 by the Bancroft Collection, Wilmington Socity of Fine Arts, Delaware oil 47 1/2 x 23 in. The frame bears a two line inscription written by DGR for the work. DGR 1881 Monogram and date in lower left corner. A note by DGR on the physical size of the picture is written in one of his small notebooks. Marillier, <hi rend="i">DGR: An Illustrated Memorial</hi> , 190. Gowans and Gray, <hi rend="i">Masterpieces of DGR</hi> , 55. Radford, <hi rend="i">Dante Gabriel Rossetti</hi> , 50. Delaware Art Museum print. Delaware Art Museum print, Val Princep collection. Surtees, <hi rend="i">A Catalogue Raisonné</hi> , vol. 2, plate 392. <artist/> <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>DGR began this picture sometime early in 1876 as a kind of reprise on his <xref doc="a.s249.rap"> <title level="pic"> <hi rend="i">Astarte Syriaca</hi> : as he told his mother in a letter of 29 April, “I have twice commenced the Venus Astarte subject. The second commencement is I believe quite a success for me—my best; and the heads are now all fully secured. I have lately been working up as a separate picture the principal head of the first commencement, which, though I was bent on doing it still better for the picture, is by no means a failure. I am making it into another design of head and hands only, to be called Memory, or La Ricordanza which word I suppose (though it might be rather obsolete) is as admissible Italian as ‘Rimembranza’” ( Fredeman, <hi rend="i">Correspondence</hi> , 76. 78 ). By the end of May he was nearing completion and about to order a frame for the painting: as he told Watts-Dunton on 21 May, “I suppose I shall certainly get the frame for La Ricordanza before the end of the coming week. The picture is looking much finer now than when you left, as the moment had just then arrived for thoroughly harmonizing and bringing it together.” ( Fredeman, <hi rend="i">Correspondence</hi> , 76. 85, 93 ). The prospective buyer for the picture was Clarence Fry, but in the end he declined.

The painting remained in DGR's studio until Leyland, expressing an interest in it, (see Fredeman, <hi rend="i">Correspondence</hi> , 81. 46 ), did finally buy the painting in 1881.

Production History

Reception

Iconograpic

Pictorial

Historical

Literary

Autobiographical

Bibliographic

Gowans and Gray, <hi rend="i">Masterpieces of DGR</hi> , 55. Marillier, <hi rend="i">DGR: An Illustrated Memorial</hi> , 190-91, 193 . Radford, <hi rend="i">Dante Gabriel Rossetti</hi> , 50. Surtees, <hi rend="i">A Catalogue Raisonné</hi> , vol. 1, 156 (no. 261). Surtees, <hi rend="i">A Catalogue Raisonné</hi> , vol. 2, plate 392.

Thou fill'st from the winged chalice of the soulThy lamp, O Memory, fire-winged to its goal.

Inscribed on the picture's frame.