Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Works by Blake, Fuseli, Flaxman, Rossetti, Goya and Rodin are exhibited alongside manuscripts and rare books relating to Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Keats and Shelley, and early manuscripts and printed editions of Dante's masterpiece, The Divine Comedy.
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Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Paolo and Francesca, c.1855, The British Museum, LondonThe exhibition begins by introducing the changing appearance of Dante in art from his own time until the present day, and illustrates the extent to which the Divine Comedy was known in England prior to the Romantics, from its first appearance in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, to the popularity in the eighteenth century of two episodes from the Inferno: Ugolino, and Paolo and Francesca.

The heart of the exhibition features the rediscovery of Dante by Romantic artists and poets.This was a dramatic, far-reaching and long-lasting episode in the history of British literature and art.Before that Dante's work was little known, for the simple reason that the Divine Comedy was not fully and accurately translated into English until 1814.The translation, by Henry Cary, introduced Dante to English readers, writers and artists, and this exhibition will focus on those Romantic poets and artists who were inspired by their readings of Dante, and explore in depth particular themes derived from those readings.
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The Romantics were largely fascinated by the Inferno, but Pre-Raphaelite writers and artists, under the leadership of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, developed a more humanistic vision of Dante, focussing on his early poem, the Vita Nuova, and the idealized figure of Beatrice.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Paolo and Francesca, c.1855, The British Museum, LondonPrevious Wordsworth Trust Exhibitions

Although the work was highly criticized, it managed to impress Dante Rossetti who introduced Patmore to the pre-Raphaelites.He contributed poetry to the Germ, the society's journal.In 1846, he became an assistant librarian at the British Museum, a position he would hold until 1865.In 1853, he re-published a number of the better pieces from Poems, together with some new works.The following year, he published the first part of an epic poem, The Angel in the House, which was followed by The Espousals (1856), Faithful For Ever (1860) and The Victories of Love in 1862.In 1866, he purchased an estate in East Grinstead.In 1877, he published The Unknown Eros, arguably his finest work.Patmore also wrote some criticism and a number of essays.In his later years, he resided at Leamington.