The Roman widow

Rossetti, Dante Gabriel (1828-1882)

Item type:

painting

Date of creation:

1874

Height:

104.8 cm  (41 1/4 in.)

Width:

93.3 cm  (36 3/4 in.)

Technique / Medium:

oil on canvas

Additional titles

Description

From the museum website: This painting depicts one of Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s favorite models as a Roman widow wistfully plucking two lyres to mourn and honor her departed companion. To further demonstrate her continued devotion, she has placed her silver marriage-girdle around the white marble cinerary urn that contains her husband’s ashes. Rossetti based the cinerary urn on an ancient object in his own collection. The liberal use of garlands of pink old-fashioned and wild roses perhaps signifies the endurance of love even after death: a theme that Rossetti returned to time and time again in his art and poetry.

Instruments [MIMO Code] (notes)

Lyre [3501] (2 instruments, one held upright and one partially visible, lying down)

RIdIM images

Image URLs

image link 1

RIdIM record id

1367