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| 'Monna Vanna' Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1866 |
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| 'La Ghirlandata' Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1873 |
People often tell me that I am a romantic at heart and looking at the way I view the world I have to agree. From an early age I felt a real passion for Vivaldi and Botticelli, for the poetry of Shelley and the writing of the great Victorian novelists Bram Stoker and Robert Louis Stevenson. For a long time I was absolutely obsessed with Mozart and went on pilgrimages to Austria to attain some deeper sense of connection to his life and work.
Very soon I will be going on another pilgrimage of sorts. This time my fascination turns towards the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood and the women who became their muses. I do wonder though if a greater knowledge of the lives of my idols is always a good idea. Right now I hold a romantic view of their lives in my mind informed by nothing more then the connection I have with their artwork. Will their lives colour the way I perceive works I have loved for so long? I must hope that this knowledge will make them all the richer.
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| 'The Tree of Forgiveness' Edward Burne-Jones 1881-1882 |
