Giotto Painting the Portrait of Dante Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1 Dante Gabriel Rossetti (Thames and Hudson, 2003) Giotto Painting the Portrait of Dante DGR 1852 The Old Watercolour Society, Exhibition of Sketches and Drawings Winter 1852; R.A. 1883 (no.365); R.A., 2003, Pre–Raphaelite and Other Masters Thomas Seddon 1852 £12 Collection of Lord Andrew Lloyd–Webber Thomas Seddon 1852, £12; Rossetti sale 1883, £630 (Marillier) or £430 (Surtees); Agnew; John Aird, M.P. watercolour 14 1/2 in. x 18 1/2 in. The four key ideas in the picture—youth, art, friendship, and love—are written on the frame in gothic lettering said to have been the work of the picture's first owner, J. P. Seddon. Angeli, DGR con 107 illustrazioni , 73. Marillier, <hi rend="i">DGR: An Illustrated Memorial</hi> , facing 40. <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> Other than the <xref doc="a.s54a.rap">drawing</xref> that DGR exhibited in late 1852, this watercolour is the only finished version of the work that DGR had intended to complete in oil. The work was to have been part of a triptych, with the other two panels showing Dante as a Florentine magistrate sentencing Cavalcanti to exile, and Dante at the court of Can Grande della Scala. Sketches toward the latter survive as <xref doc="a.s55.rap"> <title level="pic"> <hi rend="i">Dante at Verona</hi> .

Reception

Iconographic

Julian Treuherz explicates the implicit argument in the picture thus: “just as Cimabue's fame was eclipsed by Giotto's, so Guinizelli's was by Cavalcanti's, and by implication Dante's outshines both: in the painting he therefore holds a pomegranate, symbol of immortality. Rossetti may also have had in mind his own role in reviving the fame of his artistic forebears through his paintings and his translations of Italian poetry” (see <hi rend="i">Pre-Raphaelite and Other Masters</hi> 28 ); and, one might well add, through his own original writings as well.

Literary

Autobiographical

Bibliographic

Angeli, DGR con 107 illustrazioni , 73. Benedetti, <hi rend="i"> Dante Gabriel Rossetti</hi> , 173. Faxon, <hi rend="i">Dante Gabriel Rossetti</hi> , 62-63. Marillier, <hi rend="i">DGR: An Illustrated Memorial</hi> , 39-40. <hi rend="i">Pre–Raphaelite and Other Masters</hi> , 28. WMR, <hi rend="i">DGR as Designer and Writer</hi> , 15-17. Surtees, <hi rend="i">A Catalogue Raisonné</hi> , vol. 1, 19-20 (no. 54). Treuherz et al., <hi rend="i">DGR</hi> , 157 (no. 40).