By Clarisse Declaro

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB) emerged in 1848 when a group of English artists and poets gathered around Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, and William Holman Hunt to initiate a revolutionary movement to reform art and literature. They rejected the conventions of prevailing academic styles and found inspiration in the art of the early Renaissance, before Raphael’s influence. The PRB viewed this earlier period as one of greater sincerity and authenticity. They produced artworks that showcased meticulous naturalism, vibrant colors, and a strong concentration on symbolism and moral narratives. These artworks both encapsulate their modern conception of individual subjectivity and their rebellion against the father figures of Raphael and Joshua Reynolds along with the institution of the Royal Academy and its Schools.  

Painted in 1875-78, a quarter-century after Dante Gabriel Rossetti published the first version of the corresponding poem in 1850, The Blessed Damozel is a central visual expression of the Pre-Raphaelite ideals explored in his poem of the same title. The painting depicts a symbolic representation of Rossetti’s interest in Medieval mysticism, spiritual longing, and the transcendence of earthly love. The central figure in the painting is the Blessed Damozel herself, portrayed as an ethereal presence. She is seated on a golden cloud in a celestial setting, gazing downward at the three other ethereal figures and the earthly realm. Rossetti’s Damozel represents the intersection of earthly love and the divine by creating the visual and symbolic combination of the two seemingly separate worlds.  The Damozel sits with her hands clasped in a gesture of contemplating her separation from the earthly world and the lover she left behind, conveying a sense of longing and devotion. The golden light that surrounds her depicts her ethereal beauty and divine presence, which contrasts with the darker earthly tone of the background. The Damozel appears detached from the earthly world but remains connected to it through her gaze and the cloth that hangs around her neck. The lilies that she’s holding represent purity and innocence, while the roses around her represent the sensual love for her lover.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti represents these ideals in his poem “The Blessed Damozel" in which he depicts the major themes of love, longing, and the relationship between the earthly and the divine. In the revised version of the poem, the lines “The blessed Damozel leaned out / From the gold bar of Heaven; / Her eyes were deeper than the depth / Of waters stilled at even” (lines 1-4) represent the Damozel as an ethereal figure who connects the divine and earthly world. Her way of leaning out form the heaven’s golden edge shows both her heavenly nature and her longing for the earthly world and her lover. This longing is further emphasized in the lines, “I wish that he were come to me, / For he will come,” she said” (lines 67-68) in which she expresses her deep desire for reunion with her lover. Her words convey her hope and unwavering faith that their love will transcend the boundaries between her celestial existence and her unfulfilled earthly love.

Dante Gabriel Rosssetti’s painting The Blessed Damozel and the poem exemplify the ideals of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB) by illustrating the intersection of the emotional narratives with meticulous attention to details and vibrant naturalism. This reflects a parallel idea of how John Everett Millais’s Isabella represents emotional conflict between love and loss through the detailed features of Isabella’s emotion of sorrow, as she mourns the loss of her lover, Lorenzo and the setting that highlights the tension between the figures and their conflicting emotions. Similarly, Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s The Blessed Damozel rejects the ideals of Royal Academy by departing from its emphasis on idealized grandeur, historical themes, and the imitation of High Renaissance art. These ideals which are rooted in the Romantic period marked a departure from the rigid, and formal conventions of the Neoclassical era. Unlike the Royal Academy, which prioritized order, rationality, and the imitation of classical perfection, Romanticism focused on emotion, individuality, and the exploration of the inner life.