Included Text
- Lungi è la luce che in sù questo muro
- Rifrange appena, un breve istante scorta
- Del rio palazzo alla soprana porta.
- Lungi quei fiori d'Enna, O lido oscuro,
- Dal frutto tuo fatal che omai m'è duro.
- Lungi quel cielo dal tartareo manto
- Che quì mi cuopre: e lungi ahi lungi ahi quanto
- Le notti che saràn dai dì che furo.
- Lungi da me mi sento; e ognor sognando
- Cerco e ricerco, e resto ascoltatrice; 10
- E qualche cuore a qualche anima dice,
- (Di cui mi giunge il suon da quando in quando,
- Continuamente insieme sospirando,)—
- “Oimè per te, Proserpina infelice!”
Note: Poem appears in the upper right corner of the painting.
Scholarly Commentary
Production History
Of the eight known versions of Proserpine, this is the sixth. This painting was begun in October or November of 1873, to replace the previous version, which had been damaged during the lining process. When sent to Frederic Leyland in Liverpool in December of that same year, it too was disfigured during transportation and returned to the artist (Fredeman, Correspondence, 74.4). The head and hands were cut out and patched onto a new canvas, and the rest of the picture repainted. DGR then redated the work to 1877 and sold it to W.A. Turner.
Bibliography