Dante Gabriel Rossetti | Roman Widow, 1874

Roman Widow or Dîs Manibus is an oil on canvas painting executed in 1874 by the English Pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

It is in the collection of the Museo de Arte de Ponce in Puerto Rico.

It depicts a young Roman widow, modelled by Alexa Wilding, sitting in a sepulchre by her late husband's cinerary urn, around which is wound her bridal girdle.

She is dressed in classical mourning drapery and playing an elegy on two small harps, one with each hand.

Pink roses, the flowers of Venus and symbolic of love, wreath both the harp and the urn.

6 artworks to look out for at Tate Britain

Tate è un gruppo di gallerie d'arte con sede a Londra, Liverpool e Cornovaglia, note come Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Tate St Ives e Tate Liverpool + RIBA North.

Quando la Tate aprì per la prima volta le sue porte al pubblico nel 1897, aveva una sola sede, che esponeva una piccola collezione di opere d'arte britanniche.

Oggi dispone di quattro sedi principali e della collezione nazionale di arte britannica dal 1500 ad oggi e di arte moderna e contemporanea internazionale, che comprende circa 70.000 opere d'arte.

Sir John Everett Millais | Mariana, 1851 | Tate Collection

This painting by British painter John Everett Millais (1829-1896) is of Mariana, a character from Shakespeare’s play Measure for Measure.

The story goes that Mariana’s fiancé Angelo leaves after her family’s money is lost in a shipwreck.

Still in love with him, she hopes they will be reunited.

Millais shows Mariana pausing to stretch her back after working at some embroidery, with the autumn leaves scattered on the ground marking the passage of time.

The stained-glass windows in front of her show the Annunciation, contrasting the Virgin's fulfilment with Mariana's frustration and longing.

Sir John Everett Millais | Mariana, 1851 | Tate Collection

Walter Crane | Precursor of Art Nouveau

Walter Crane (1845-1915) was an English artist and book illustrator.

Together with William Morris, Walter Crane was a leader in the Art Nouveau and the Arts and Crafts artistic movements

.

Walter Crane is considered to be the most influential, and among the most prolific, children's book creators of his generation and, along with Randolph Caldecott and Kate Greenaway, one of the strongest contributors to the child's nursery motif that the genre of English children's illustrated literature would exhibit in its developmental stages in the later 19th century.

Crane's work featured some of the more colourful and detailed beginnings of the child-in-the-garden motifs that would characterize many nursery rhymes and children's stories for decades to come.

Amore non è amore se muta.. | Shakespeare, Sonetto 116

Shakespeare | Let me not to the marriage of true minds | Sonnet 116

Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove:

O no! it is an ever-fixed mark

That looks on tempests and is never shaken;

Alessandro Puttinati | Paolo e Virginia, 1844

Lord Alfred Douglas | Due amori / Two Loves, 1894

Sognai di stare su un piccolo colle

e un piano ai miei piedi s’apriva simile

a vasto giardino che a suo talento fioriva

di fiori e boccioli. V’erano stagni sognanti

placidi e cupi, e candidi gigli,

sparuti, e crochi, e violette

purpuree e pallide, fritillarie sinuose,

rade presenze fra l’erba in rigoglio, e tra le verdi maglie

occhi blu di vergognose pervinche brillanti nel sole.

Fabian Perez

Jane Crowther, 1962

Originally from York (UK), Jane Crowther studied Illustration BA(Hons) at Kingston Polytechnic.

In the early 1990’s, whilst based in North London, Jane designed a small range of greeting cards to supplement her meagre income as an artist, initially selling them at craft fairs alongside her large multi-media paintings.

The cards started to sell really well and Jane made the commercial decision to concentrate on her card designs.

Molly Brett | Writer / Children's book illustrator

Molly Brett (1902–1990) was an English illustrator and writer of children's literature, best known for her anthropomorphic artwork.

Molly (Mary Elizabeth) Brett grew up in the English county of Surrey, surrounded by animals and nature.

Her mother, Mary Gould Brett, was a respected animal painter who encouraged her daughter to paint from life, and this is reflected in Molly's gift for making her animals look thoroughly naturalistic while giving them human characteristics and activities.

Charles Dickens: "Love is not a feeling to pass away"

Charles John Huffam Dickens (1812-1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and social critic.

He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian era.

His works enjoyed unprecedented popularity during his lifetime and, by the 20th century, critics and scholars had recognised him as a literary genius.

His novels and short stories are widely read today.

Charles Dickens | Love is not a feeling to pass away

Love is not a feeling to pass away,

Like the balmy breath of a summer day;

It is not - it cannot be - laid aside;

It is not a thing to forget or hide.

William Powell Frith | The Two Central Figures in "Derby Day" | The Metropolitan Museum of Art