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| Lady Lilith |
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.
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| 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.
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