Proserpine
Proserpine c1882 (v8) by Italian Painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828 – 1882); who was also an illustrator, poet and translator.
This is a beautiful portrait of Proserpine the daughter of Zeus and goddess of agriculture, as well as the wife of Hades, King of the underworld.
Proserpine is wearing a green gown that is flowing over a table that she is standing by, that has an incense burner with burning incense.
She is holding in her left hand a pomegranate that has been sliced open and is a reddish orange color that matches the color of her hair.
Behind her we can see a large vine that is illuminated with light streaming in from a far distance; creating the appearance that she is in some sought of enclosure.
Lastly in the upper right hand corner of the portrait is a four verse poem.
This is a retouched digital art old masters reproduction of a public domain image.
Info below derived from Wikipedia.org
Dante was born Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti and was the son of émigré Italian scholar Gabriele Pasquale Giuseppe Rossetti and Frances Mary Lavinia Polidori.
Dante had three siblings who were poet Christina Rossetti, critic William Michael Rossetti, and author Maria Francesca Rossetti.
As a child Dante was home schooled and when he became old enough he then attended King’s College School near the Strand in London.
Though during his college years he aspired to be a poet; he also wanted to be a painter, demonstrating great interest in Medieval Italian Art.
From 1841 to 1845 he studied at the Henry Sass Drawing Academy; he was also enrolled in the Antique School of the Royal Academy until 1848.
After leaving the Royal Academy he studied under British Painter Ford Madox Brown (1821 – 1893).
Some tie later he would meet William Holman Hunt (1827 – 1910), after his exhibition of the painting The Eve of St.Agnes, which illustrated a poem by British Poet John Keats (1795 – 1821).
Much the same as Rossetti’s painting The Blessed Damozel was an imitation of Keats; believing that Hunt might share some of his artistic and literary ideals.
Together Rossetti and Hunt would develop the philosophy of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood which they founded along with John Everett Millais.
