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Art History Day
"🎶 Alas, my love, you do me wrong
To cast me off discourteously
For I have loved you well and long
Delighting in your company
Greensleeves was all my joy
Greensleeves was my delight
Greensleeves was my heart of gold
And who but my lady Greensleeves."
~Traditional, 16th century
This beautiful and intensely coloured tartan takes its inspiration from a traditional English folk tune, a lover's lament, and its subsequent most famously realized namesake painting by Dante Gabriel Rosetti, who along with John Everett Millais, William Holman Hunt, Edward Burne-Jones, Ford Madox Brown, and Elizabeth formed the Pre-Raphaelite Art Movement, founded this day in 1848. Beginning as small group, these English artists sought to return to the detail, vivid color, and complex compositions of early Renaissance art before Raphael. Rejecting the industrialization of the Victorian era, they embraced medieval themes, nature, and romanticism, often depicting beautiful women with flowing red hair in dreamy, mythical settings. Hearkening back to the 16th century, green was a colour representative of "lightness in love," indicating an inconstant or promiscuous nature. The Brotherhood's interest in history, medievalism, and nature had a significant impact on the artistic movements of the time, particularly in Scotland and on Scottish artists. Interest in their works underwent a major revival during the late 20th century, influencing modern cinematography, fashion and photography, and sparked interest in the fascinating and sometimes troubled and tragic lives of some of the artists' models and muses of this period, including the flame-haired Elizabeth Siddal, Fanny Cornworth, Alexa Wilding, Effie Gray and Jane Morris. Interestingly, Rosetti's other bohemian lifestyle passion was his pet wombat, "Top", whom he described as "the joy of his life"! 💚 🧡 💛 ♥️ 🎨 🖌️
Today marks the 1848 founding of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The three founders were joined by William Michael Rossetti, James Collinson, Frederic George Stephens and Thomas Woolner to form the seven-member "brotherhood".
The group's intention was to reform art by rejecting what it considered the mechanistic approach first adopted by the Mannerist artists who succeeded Raphael and Michelangelo. Its members believed the classical poses and elegant compositions of Raphael in particular had been a corrupting influence on the academic teaching of art, hence the name "Pre-Raphaelite."
The brotherhood sought a return to the abundant detail, intense colours and complex compositions of Quattrocento Italian art.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, illustrator, painter and translator and the pimary founder, was later to be the main inspiration for a second generation of artists and writers influenced by the movement, most notably William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones. His work also influenced the European Symbolists and was a major precursor of the Aesthetic movement.
Rossetti's art was characterised by its sensuality and its medieval revivalism. Several portraits show ladies in green, including the one above, titled "Greensleeves".
Designed by Carol A.L. Martin, this tartan also recalls the colors associated with the Lady Greensleeves, the name of familiar ballad often assumed to have been composed by King Henry VIII. Scholars note, however, that the piece is based on an Italian style of composition that did not reach England until after Henry's death, making it more likely Elizabethan in origin.
The first verses of many begin:
Alas, my love, you do me wrong,
To cast me off discourteously.
For I have loved you well and long,
Delighting in your company.
Greensleeves was all my joy
Greensleeves was my delight,
Greensleeves was my heart of gold,
And who but my lady greensleeves.
At the time of its likely origin, the word "green" had sexual connotations, most notably in the phrase "a green gown" which was a euphemism indicating the staining of garments in the green grass during lovers' trysts. And in Chaucer’s age, green was also an indicator colour of lightness in love.
For more on Rosetti's muses and models, click the portrait.