ROSSETTI: 'THE BRIDE' ESSAY

PAINTING WORK: 'The Beloved'

'The Beloved', also known as 'The Bride', is a 17th Century oil painting by the fantastic Dante Gabriel Rossetti. One of Rossetti's most famous pieces, it is very bold and exotic, with beauty and religion (painting represents part of a song of Solomon) being just some of its running themes. In the painting, there are 6 figures; 4 women surrounding and a young child below the main figure, the 'Bride'. The 'Bride' is a pale figure, with those around her being of different ethnicity's. It is said that Rossetti was trying to show that beauty is of different races and colours. There is also a lot of natural beauty in the form of a variety of flowers in shades of reds, pinks and yellows.

I chose to look at this particular painting out of all those that I have already gathered as influence, because simply it is a beautiful piece. It isn't easy for me to say why I love the piece when I am so familiar with it in comparison to a piece I have newly discovered. The reason I originally put it in my book was because of the wrapping and draping of material around the brides hair, and the loose hanging of her printed clothes. I could identify with these features of it in relation to my photos and theme of wrapping, in particular turbans. Why I chose to look at it further in class, and have my classmates tell me what they associated with it and what was memorable about it (religion, nature and surprisingly Christmas being amongst the most common comments), was for a mixture of reasons. As a fan of the artist it could be because I love his work, the traditional beauties portrayed, and warm bold colours used. Out of the images I had collected, it was the most appealing of the lot; the composition and layout being considered carefully, as the artist fills the canvas with women, voluptuous sleeves and draping headscarves, flowers and detailed body adornment; the rich colours and different hues used, and the light pale tone of the bride contrasting against the background and other figures.