Virgin and Child (unexecuted)

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

General Description

Date: 1871 (circa)

Scholarly Commentary

Introduction

DGR projected this picture in a notebook entry that dates from around 1871. The conception is particularly interesting because, while the subject is distinctly “Rossettian”, DGR in fact never painted it. The (originally christological) “child” motif figures prominently in both the 1870 and the 1881 versions of “The House of Life”, although DGR completely secularizes its meaning.

The only other picture on this subject is the set of drawings DGR made in 1852. The latter,however, are conceived as miniatures. This picture is imagined on a much larger—indeed, on a mythic—scale.

Electronic Archive Edition: 1
Source File: sa817.raw.xml