Pre-Raphaelite Women in Rossetti's The Girlhood of Mary Virgin Essay

Pre-Raphaelite Women in Rossetti's The Girlhood of Mary Virgin - Essay Example This is that blessed Mary, pre-elect, God's Virgin. Gone is a great while, and she Dwelt young in Nazareth of Galilee. Unto God's will she brought devout respect, Profound simplicity of intellect, And supreme patience. From her mother's knee Faithful and hopeful; wise in charity; Strong in grave peace; in pity circumspect. So held she through her girlhood; as it were An angel-watered lily, that near God Grows and is quiet. Till, one dawn at home, She woke in her white bed, and had no fear At all, -- yet wept till sunshine, and felt awed; Because the fullness of the time was come. II. â€Å"These are the symbols. On that cloth of red I’ the centre is the Tripoint: perfect each, Except the second of its points, to teach That Christ is not yet born. The books – whose head Is golden Charity, as Paul hath said – Those virtues are wherein the soul is rich: Therefore on them the lily standeth, which Is innocence, being interpreted. The seven-thorn’d briar and th e pal seven-leaved Are her great sorrow and her great reward. Until the end be full, the Holy One Abides without. She soon shall have achieved Her perfect purity: yea, God the Lord Shall soon vouchsafe His Son to be her Son1. The Girlhood of Mary contains strong religious symbolism. ... Gabriel Rossetti the artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti was born in London, England on May 12, 1828 with the given name of Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti. His mother was Frances Polidori and his father was Gabriel Rossetti who as a poet had a partiality towards the works of the poet Dante Alighieri that he gave his first son the same namesake. Later, Rossetti put the Dante first ahead of his birth name Gabriel in honour of the poet he was named after. Dante’s early works were said to be mirrored in the earlier works of Rossetti3. Dante Gabriel Rossetti had three other siblings (whom he was the eldest) who were equally talented. His other sibling, Cristina was also a poet just like her brother Dante Gabriel who sat as the Virgin Mary in the paintings of Dante Gabriel The Girlhood of Mary Virgin and Ecce Ancilla Domini. III. The Victorian Female during Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s time Dante Gabriel Rossetti (12 May 1828  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ 9 April 1882) was born during the reign of Queen Victoria who was the Queen of England from 1837 to 1901. During the reign of Queen Victoria (known as Victorian era), the idea of ideal feminine was patterned after the queen herself. The respectability and figure of the ideal lady during the era of Queen Victoria surrounds around domestic purity as she dispenses her duty as a wife, mother and daughter 4(BBC 2004). This era is characterized as the domestic age as femininity was centered on family as epitomized by Queen Victoria who was the role model of marital stability and domestic virtue5. This social milieu during Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s time may have tremendously influenced his early works especially his first public oil painting The Girlhood of Mary when he describes his idea of lady to be innocent and pure; This concept of womanhood stressed