The Girlhood of Mary Virgin by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

The Girlhood of Mary Virgin by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1848–49)

The artist

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882), painter and poet, was one of the founders in 1848 of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais: a group of young artists who took their name from painters before Raphael. Rossetti completed this picture when he was twenty.

The painting's history

Painted in 1848–49, this was Rossetti's first completed oil painting. It was shown in 1849 at the Free Exhibition at Hyde Park Corner, and it was the first picture exhibited with the initials "PRB", which appear under his signature at the lower left: Dante Gabriele Rossetti P.R.B. 1849. It was bought by Louisa, Marchioness of Bath, for £80. Rossetti wrote two sonnets explaining its symbols, one for the frame and one for the exhibition catalogue.

Subject

The picture shows the Virgin Mary as a girl, learning with her mother, Saint Anne. Mary sits at the right in a grey dress, her long red-gold hair down her back, working at an embroidery frame on which she is stitching a lily in gold on red cloth. Anne sits beside her in a dark cloak and red hood and guides her hands. Both have thin gold haloes. Outside on the balcony Mary's father, Joachim, also haloed, stands on tiptoe pruning a vine on a trellis.

Symbols

• The lily: a tall white lily stands in a red two-handled vase on a pile of books, and it is the flower Mary copies in her embroidery. The lily stands for Mary's purity.
• The angel: a child angel with deep pink wings, in a white gown, stands beside the lily, one hand resting on the books.
• The books: their spines are lettered with the names of virtues; FIDES (faith), TEMPERANTIA (temperance) and FORTITUDO (fortitude) can be read.
• The palm and the thorn: a palm branch and a thorny briar lie together on the floor in front, tied with a scroll. Tate reads them as signs of Christ, looking ahead to his Passion.
• The vine and trellis: the vine Joachim tends grows on a trellis that forms a cross, another sign of the Passion.
• The dove: on the trellis at the left perches a white dove inside a gold halo, the Holy Spirit.
• Other details: a rose stands in a glass vase on the parapet beside an oil lamp, the lamp standing for piety; a red cloth hangs over the balustrade; and at the right edge, behind Mary, is a small organ.

Technique

• Colour: Rossetti looked to Italian painting before Raphael, and keeps his colours clear and flat: the red of the cloth and embroidery, the grey of Mary's dress, the green of the curtain behind.
• Detail: objects are drawn with sharp outlines and set out one by one, from the lettering on the books to the leaves of the vine.
• Models: Rossetti used his family. His sister, the poet Christina Rossetti, sat for Mary and his mother, Frances, for Saint Anne; a family servant named Williams sat for Joachim.
• Space: the room is shallow, closed off by the green curtain at the right, with a view past the balcony to a green landscape and hills.

Later changes

Rossetti went back to the painting. In 1864 he changed the angel's wings from white to the deep pink seen now, and altered the colour of Mary's sleeves. The painting was bequeathed to the Tate by Agnes Jekyll in 1937 (N04872). It is oil on canvas, 83.2 by 65.4 centimetres.

About this print

Made from a photograph of the whole canvas, including the signature and date at the lower left.

Sources: Tate, London, N04872 · Wikimedia Commons · Wikipedia, "The Girlhood of Mary Virgin"