Note prompted by the Guardian Tate review of the
Rossettis -- https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2023/apr/04/rossettis-review-tate-dante-gabriel-christina
My goodness, Mr. Jones, so what did you really think?
It was this silly "O the sexy" attitude toward DGRossetti that moved me to
write my first novel. Beyond the general ignorance
that he was painting icons, a whole world of history, an ever-expanding
cosmos of other-Christian mysticism, and the present-day obsession with
his Muse, it's the "omnipresent nameless girl" who haunts the artist’s
(dgr) work...feeding "upon her face by day and night” as Jones writes,
quoting Christina. My novel is about this "girl": who she really, truly, deeply is.
Sometimes, spirit has to be made flesh. Or words on paper. Who has
seen the wind? Christina asks; this invisible movement that creates
matter, time, space. Her brother saw it. He threw a coat of paint on
it. Voila.
As Philo said, it's that which can only be sung.