Art Encounter #2 -Lady Lilith by Rosetti

Lady Lilith

Artist: Dante Gabriel Rosetti
Title: Lady Lilith
Medium: Oil on canvas
Date: 1868
Accompanied by:"Body's Beauty" a sonnet from The House of Life poem (inscribed on frame)

         Body's Beauty

• Of Adam's first wife, Lilith, it is told
• (The witch he loved before the gift of Eve,)
• That, ere the snake's, her sweet tongue could deceive,
• And her enchanted hair was the first gold.
• And still she sits, young while the earth is old,
• And, subtly of herself contemplative,
• Draws men to watch the bright web she can weave,
• Till heart and body and life are in its hold.

• The rose and poppy are her flowers; for where
• Is he not found, O Lilith, whom shed scent 10
• And soft-shed kisses and soft sleep shall snare?
• Lo! as that youth's eyes burned at thine, so went
• Thy spell through him, and left his straight neck bent
• And round his heart one strangling golden hair.

Dante Rossetti was a painter and a poet.  He was the founder of a group called the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood; a group of writers and artists who wanted to return to abundant detail, intense color, and classical composition (medieval revivalism).  He was an imaginative and sensuous man whose many Muse's beauty passionately inspired his work and consumed his romantic life.

Dante Rossetti

This duet is part of a set which also includes another painting
entitled Sibylla Palmifera accompanied by the sonnet "Soul's Beauty".  These two pieces are representative of ideal beauty one that is grounded in the physical (Lilith) and also spiritual
(Sibylla).  A interpretation of woman as the Virgin/Whore Dichotomy or the Femme Fatal image.  This work is also supposed to be based on Lilith, the biblical Adam's first wife, this basis further exemplifies the dichotomy.

At my first glance this painting is lush and sensuous.  The rich dark colors in the background contrast with the lady in white with the blazing hair.  It is a beautiful painting.  Paired with the sonnet and I think that this is much more than a beautiful woman in repose.

She seems to be seated in her bedroom but the many flowers and the reflection in the mirror echo an outdoor space.  Maybe this is a parallel of the wild nature of woman such as Lilith, Adam's first wife and her rebellious nature or inability to be tamed?  The white roses are said to be symbols of sterile passion and the poppies traditionally represent death.  Lilith in her Femme Fatal imagery is both seductive to men and their ultimate demise.  She arouses them visually yet is emotionally detached.  The expression on her face is almost haughty.  She knows that she is beautiful and like the sonnet says, "Draws men to watch the bright web she can weave till heart and body and life are in its hold".  Rosetti was obsessed with his many women muses, maybe their physical appearances held this deadly love for him?

Lilith's red hair is a focal point of the painting.  It is long, lustrous and unbound.  This is quite contrary to the hair styles of the day which focused on women's hair being hidden and bound.  Hair like this was sexually aggressive, a display of wantonness.  The sonnet ends with "round his heart one strangling golden hair" to signify the power of her hair, her womanliness.  Her dress is also provocative.  She is not corseted and covered like contemporary fashion of the time would have.  She is dressed to be undressed, another indication of her open sexuality.  She is a lethal beauty.

I am torn between two scenarios that Rosetti might have been trying to convey.  He paints woman as a sexual seductress that will destroy man.  Or he paints woman with strength in beauty/sex, the other side of her not just the housewife.  Either scenario he gives woman power which is more than we have been allowed before this point in time.

Concept Blog #2- The Most Scintillating Conversation in the World-

"Reading from Moliere" Jean Francois de Troy, 1728

The Age of Enlightenment brought about many radical ideas, one of them being the right to free thought and the exchange of those ideas.  But what good are new ideas if there is no place to talk about them with your peers?  So now at this time enters an important new concept, the Salon.  The Salon was a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring hostess for entertainment, conversation, and the perpetuation of the exchange of free thought.  Salon's started as small social gatherings at someones home and by the Eighteenth century had become an institution in France as well as one of the major modes of communication among the intellectual community.



The Salon was a place where women could also discuss ideas and receive an informal "education" that prior to that time was denied to them.  Women were placed  into the position of the salonnierre, she was in charge of selecting the guests, topic of discussion, and mediation of the direction of the discussion.  In a male dominant world a woman could become a powerful influence within the Salon and help to further the Enlightenment without fear of persecution.

"A Reading in the salon of Mme. Geoffrin", 1755

One if the most well-known salonnierres was Madame de Tencin.  Madame de Tencin had a scandalous past that fascinated many.  To gain an invitation to her salon was highly sought after.  She was formerly a nun and was reputed to have been the mistress of several powerful men such as King Louis XV's best friend, the Maréchal de Richelieu, and also the  Cardinal Dubois, the prime minister of France.  She established the first literary salon on Paris.  She shrewdly allowed the first foreign visitors to her salon, distinguished men from England.

Madame de Tencin

 
Another famous salonnierre was Madame Geofrrin, she was the infamous patroness of a Parisian salon.  She was trained for her role in the salon by Madame de Tencin.  She was said to have played hostess to the most important Philosophes and Encyclopedistes of the Enlightenment.  Not only did her salon cater to the intellectual men of the time she also was a patron of the arts.  Her place in the furthering of the Enlightenment is paramount for she is one of only a handful of women to participate in its momentum.

Madame Geoffrin

Sadly, I know that the French salon no longer exists.  Throughout history there is an occurrence of resurgences of the salon in metropolitan areas but it is never the same as 18th century France.  I believe that the salon is still alive in the twenty-first century as the Internet!  It is basically the same concept a place where there is free thought (sometimes too free, but you can't give it to one and not all!) and the exchange of ideas.  You can find many people who share the same ideas and that will also listen to yours.  The variety of information and opinion is endless.  The only thing missing is the educated and beautiful salonnierre.