Mariana - John Everett Millais

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Inspired by: John Everett Millais - Mariana

This painting was inspired by an Alfred, Lord Tennyson poem. The Pre-Raphaelites based many of their paintings on Shakespeare and Tennyson’s themes. Millais used Tennyson’s “Mariana” to create a narrative for his painting. It tells the story of Mariana, a character in Shakespeare's “Measure for Measure”. In the play, she is rejected by her fiancé Angelo, after her dowry is lost in a shipwreck. In Shakespeare’s version, Mariana ends up seducing Angelo and getting him to marry her. In contrast, Tennyson dwells on her isolation and loneliness, which is never resolved. Millais hung the poem along with his painting at its first showing,
The Pre-Raphaelites focused much of their work on single female figures. These women were typically based on tragic heroines sourced from myths or literature. The women always possessed a remarkable and distinctive kind of beauty often coupled with a mystical power or dominance over men. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB) originated in 1848 with seven members. They studied painters who came before Raphael, hence the “Pre- Raphaelites”. They set up camp in Dante Rossetti’s mothers house, and put a plaque with PRB on front door. Some people thought it stood for “please ring bell”. See original: bit.ly/42E5A1w

Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema A Reading from Homer

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Inspired by - Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema - A Reading from Homer

Lawrence Alma-Tadema was one of the principal classical-subject painters of the nineteenth century. He became famous for his depictions of the luxury and decadence of the Greek and Roman Empire, with languorous figures set in fabulous marbled interiors. He was born in the Netherlands as Laurens Tadema, but he emigrated to England in 1870. When he tried to make his niche in the art world, he changed the spelling of his first name to the more English “Lawrence”. He included his middle name “Alma” as part of his surname, so he would be listed amongst the “A’s” in exhibi-tion catalogues.

His meticulous archaeological research into Roman architecture, led to his paintings being used as source material by Hollywood directors in such films as: “Ben Hur”, “Cleopatra” and “Gladiator”. For “The Ten Commandments” Cecil B. DeMille would customarily spread out prints of Alma-Tadema paintings to indicate to his set designers the look he wanted to achieve.

He became one of the wealthiest painters of the 19th century. He was even knighted in 1899. But like so many great painters his work was mostly ignored after his death. His painterly prowess was not reestablished until fifty years later. One of his most celebrated paintings “the Finding of Moses” was sold in 1960 for $400, the same painting sold for $36,000,000 at Sotheby’s in 2010. If you bought $400 of Apple stock in 1980 it would only be worth $280,000 today.

To see original: https://bit.ly/43oEUiH