2012/12/09

But just when at that swallow's soar Your neck turn'd so, Some veil did fall

From Rossetti's poem. Metempsychosis (and for that, read Gershom Scholem). As for the PRB, Hunt's Lady Of Shalot is amazing to see in person. Best thing he ever did, imho. There's a couple different oil versions of it (below). The one I saw recently has the most amazing popping reds.
Like the other PRB's, Hunt wanted to be a mystic, but was just too literal. Anyway, I got to touch a real Rossetti that was in the archives in DC (not to mention the number of them in Mark Lasner's closet!*). That painter is embedded in his work. That's what my Rossetti book is all about. There's nothing more amazing in the cosmos than the magic of stuffing souls in matter.

added from some comments about Rossetti:


  • whose closet boasts these paintings?
  • Aporia Heights Mark Samuels Lasner. Before he was at Delaware, and before the more recent bloom of interest in the PRB, he was great champion of preserving their works. True scholar, generous man:http://www.materialculture.udel.edu/faculty/lasner.html
  • Aporia Heights The closet -- he really did have Janey and Lizzie stashed in there, and also on the walls amid rows of Yellow Book and the most amazing collection of late Vic stuff. From his bookshelves, he pulled down a volume and held it out for me to take. But he didn't let go of this one as he put it in my hands -- I gasped, seeing it was a first ed of Rossetti's poems, dedicated to Fanny! I met his eyes -- "I hope I'm not Fanny!" I said. Sudden Light