The year 1864 contains two or three more prominent examples of Rossetti's attraction towards a luxuriant and seductive type of feminine beauty. The most important is Lady Lilith, which embodies perhaps the fullest expression of Rossetti's power in this direction. Adam's mythical first wife is shown as a beautiful woman leaning back on a couch combing her long fair hair, while with cold dispassionateness she surveys her features in a hand mirror. "Body's Beauty" Rossetti called the picture afterwards, contrasting it with his conception of "Soul's Beauty," the Sibylla Palmifera of 1866-70.
Still in the same vein—of "Women and Flowers"—is the next great picture begun in 1864, the Venus Verticordia. The principal version of this, an oil painting, was not finished until some time in 1868. The earliest in point of date is a little water-colour commissioned as a replica, which was delivered during the year. The picture represents the goddess of beauty undraped and standing in a bower of clustering honeysuckle which hides her to the waist. In her left hand she holds an apple, in her right a dart upon which is poised a sulphur butterfly. Others are hovering round. Behind is the grove of Venus, and a blue bird winging its way through space.
The remaining productions of 1864 are all in water-colour. They include Morning Music, Monna Pomona, Sir Galahad, Sir Bors, and Sir Percival—belonging to Rossetti's earlier manner; Roman de la Rose, and The Madness of Ophelia, a scene representing Laertes leading Ophelia away, whilst the king and queen are looking on.
In 1865 was painted the Blue Bower, a picture of the Lilith group, done from the Lilith model, and representing in a setting of gorgeous blue and green harmonies a woman playing upon a dulcimer. The Merciless Lady, which was painted in 1865, is a return to Rossetti's early romantic compositions, and is a particularly charming specimen. Nor was it his only water-colour of this year, though indisputably the best. For Mr. Craven he painted the subject called Washing Hands—with the exception of Dr. Johnson at the Mitre, his one experiment in (eighteenth century costume.
Another called A Fight for a Woman, is one of Rossetti's most spirited drawings. In point of invention this design goes back to very early days, as is proved by the existence of tentative sketches dating from about 1853. To the same date belongs the oil painting called originally Bella e Buona, but renamed by Rossetti Il Ramoscello in 1873, when it was taken back by him for retouching. It is a half-length figure, dressed in slate green, and holding an acorn branch.
THE BELOVED.
We now come to one of the most beautiful pictures, if not the most beautiful, that Rossetti ever painted—The Beloved. No one who has not seen it, with a warm sunlight bringing out its colour, can form the most remote conception of its brilliance. "I mean it to be like jewels," wrote Rossetti to its late owner, Mr. Rae; and jewel-like it flashes. The picture itself is described in a later chapter, amongst those selected for illustration.
In 1866, the year in which the Beloved was finished, Rossetti started upon a second great picture of the same type, the Monna Vanna, a three-quarter length figure draped in magnificent gold and white brocade, and toying with a large fan. This was commissioned by Mr. Rae, as was also Sibylla Palmifera, the third of the series, begun about the same time but not completed until 1870. Rossetti's sonnet entitled "Soul's Beauty" describes the subject—a Sibyl seated on a throne and bearing a branch of palm.