DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61290#0248
204
DANTE ROSSETTI
but even in her joy there lies a mystery, a burden
of responsibility and foreboded sorrow, that makes
it heavy to bear. It is as if some simple girl,
waking to the golden glories of a summer morn,
should wake at the same time to the thought of
the world’s pain, and realize, in a sudden exaltation
of pity and love, that somehow, by whatever path
of grief and loss, her purity, her goodness, must
help humanity and bless the race to be. The
angel at her side is a girl-child no longer, but a
youth, full of strength and graciousness, as if to
suggest that the sanctities of manhood are now to
be revealed to the maid. In his hand the radiant
Gabriel holds the full-grown and gathered lily,
whose image is now completed on the embroidered
cloth, which hangs near the bed. The dove, the
symbol of the Holy Spirit, flies in at the window,
and the light is soft and warm from the sun-bathed
landscape without.
Once again did Rossetti attempt the subject of
“ The Annunciation,” but only in a water-colour
sketch, which found a place, however, in the small
but choice collection in the Burlington Club. Here
also the lily affords the symbolic keynote of the
design,—the Virgin is seen bathing among the
water-lilies in a stream; but the singularly fine
conception of the angel’s salutation gives a special
value and interest to the work. The figure that
appears before her on the bank assumes for the
DANTE ROSSETTI
but even in her joy there lies a mystery, a burden
of responsibility and foreboded sorrow, that makes
it heavy to bear. It is as if some simple girl,
waking to the golden glories of a summer morn,
should wake at the same time to the thought of
the world’s pain, and realize, in a sudden exaltation
of pity and love, that somehow, by whatever path
of grief and loss, her purity, her goodness, must
help humanity and bless the race to be. The
angel at her side is a girl-child no longer, but a
youth, full of strength and graciousness, as if to
suggest that the sanctities of manhood are now to
be revealed to the maid. In his hand the radiant
Gabriel holds the full-grown and gathered lily,
whose image is now completed on the embroidered
cloth, which hangs near the bed. The dove, the
symbol of the Holy Spirit, flies in at the window,
and the light is soft and warm from the sun-bathed
landscape without.
Once again did Rossetti attempt the subject of
“ The Annunciation,” but only in a water-colour
sketch, which found a place, however, in the small
but choice collection in the Burlington Club. Here
also the lily affords the symbolic keynote of the
design,—the Virgin is seen bathing among the
water-lilies in a stream; but the singularly fine
conception of the angel’s salutation gives a special
value and interest to the work. The figure that
appears before her on the bank assumes for the