ROSSETTI 



67 12 



ROSSINI 



Elizabeth Rossetti 



After D. 0. Roisellt 



Millais's Ophelia. In 1855 he made 

 the acquaintance of William Morris 

 >ind Burne- Jones, and two years 

 later took a 

 leading part in 

 t he decoration 

 of the Oxford 

 Union, c o n- 

 tributing The 

 Vision of 

 Lancelot. I n 

 I860 he mar- 

 ried Miss Sid- 

 dal, but she 

 died in 1862, 

 and in 1867 

 his own health began to give way. 

 He increased his nervous malady 

 with doses of chloral, and. after an 

 attempt to poison himself with 

 laudanum, 1872, and going through 

 a severe illness in 1877, he was 

 seized with partial paralysis in 

 1881, and died at Birchington 

 April 9, 1882. 



Rossetti ranks higher as a poet 

 than as a painter ; the technicalities 

 of the latter art presented diffi- 

 culties which he evaded rather 

 than grappled with. But inasmuch 

 as his painting is the vehicle for 

 the expression of his sensuous 

 emotions, he is the true if not 

 perfect artist in this, as in his 

 other sphere of activity. His best 

 known pictures are : Ecce Ancilla 

 Domini, 1850, now in the Tate 

 Gallery ; Meeting of Dante and 

 Beatrice, 1851 ; The Annunciation, 

 1855; My Lady Greensleeves, 1858 ; 

 Beata Beatrix, 1863 ; The Beloved, 

 Monna Vanna, and Sibylla Palmi- 

 fera, 1866 ; Pandora, 1871 ; The 

 Blessed Damozel, 1874 ; Fiam- 

 metta, 1878; and Dante's Dream, 

 1881, in the Walker Art Gallery, 

 Liverpool. Conspicuous among his 

 literary productions are his trans- 

 lations of Early Italian Poets, 

 published with Ruskin's financial 

 help hi 1861, and the two volumes 

 of Ballads and Sonnets, issued 

 respectively in 1870 and 1880. See 

 Annunciation ; Beatrice ; Blessed 

 Damozel ; Pre-Raphaelites. 



Bibliography. Collected Works, 

 ed. with preface and notea by 

 W. M. Rossetti, 1890 ; Rossetti as 

 Designer and Writer, W. M.Rossetti, 

 1 889 ; Rossetti : His Family Letters, 

 with Memoir by W. M. Rossetti, 

 2 vols., 1895 ; Lives, Hall Caine, 

 1882; W. Sharp, 1887: ,1. Knight, 

 1887; F. G. Stephens, 1894; H. C. 

 Marillier, 1899, 3rd ed. 1904 ; A. C. 

 Benson, 1904 ; A Study of Clougb, 

 Arnold, Rossetti and Morris, S. A. 

 Brooke, 1908. 



Rossetti, WILLIAM MICHAEL 

 (1829-1919). British man of 

 letters. Bom Sept. 15, 1829, the 

 second son of Gabriele Rossetti 

 and brother of Dante Gabriel and 

 Christina, he was educated at a 

 private school and at King's 



Rossetti, 

 British man of letters 



College, London, becoming a clerk 

 in the civil service in 1844. In 1869 

 he became assistant secretary 

 of inland 

 revenue, and 

 he retired in 

 1894. Rossetti 

 found time for 

 the artistic 

 and literary 

 tastes which 

 he shared with 

 his brother 

 and sisters. 

 He was a 

 member of the n 



Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, re- 

 cording in his diary its proceedings, 

 and editing The Germ (q.v. ). His 

 translation of Dante's Hell, 1865, 

 was closely followed by Fine Art, 

 Chiefly Contemporary, 1867 ; he 

 wrote a Life of Keats, 1887, edited 

 Chaucer and Shelley, William 

 Blake and John Ruskin ; wrote on 

 the Pre-Raphaelites, and con- 

 tributed articles on art to The 

 Critic and The Spectator. 



Rossetti's copious work, both as 

 editor and memorialist, on his 

 own family, including a Memoir of 

 his brother, 1895, and a reprint of 

 his father's autobiography, is 

 always illuminating. Widely read 

 and of untiring industry, his 

 various duties as a civil servant 

 seem to have given no check to 

 that almost continuous flow of 

 sound criticism and fascinating 

 reminiscence which presents a 

 unique revelation concerning the 

 strongest and most original artistic 

 movement of the Victorian age 

 He died Feb. 5, 1919. 



Rossi, FRANCESCO DEI (1510- 

 63). Italian painter, known as 

 II Salviati. Born at Florence, he 

 studied under 

 Andrea del 

 S a r t o and 

 Baccio Bandi- 

 n e 1 1 i. He 

 worked at 

 Rome for 

 Cardinal Sal- 

 viati, his prin- 

 cipal patron ; 

 at Venice, 

 Florence, and 

 in France, at the chateau of Fon- 

 tainebleau. An erratic and reckless 

 disposition prevented his taking 

 advantage- of great opportunities. 

 He died of fever at Rome. There 

 are two examples of his work in 

 the National Gallery, London. 



Rossi, GIOVANNI BATTISTA DEI 

 (1494-1541). Italian painter, 

 commonly known as 11 Rosso, and 

 Maitre Roux. Born at Florence, 

 he evolved an inventive and 

 original style from the study 

 of Michelangelo and Parmigiano. 

 From Florence he went to Rome, 



Francesco Dei Rossi, 

 Italian painter 



Q. B. Dei Rossi. 

 Italian painter 



where he had a good reputation. 

 When the town was sacked in 1527, 

 he escaped to Voltorra, thon made 

 his way to 

 France, where 

 he designed 

 the great gall- 

 ery at the 

 chateau of 

 Fontainebleau, 

 and painted a 

 series of fres- 

 coes illustra- 

 tive of the life 

 of Francis I. A 

 charge of theft 

 which in a hasty moment he brought 

 against his friend Pellegrini led to 

 the latter being put to the torture 

 before being declared innocent, and 

 this event so preyed upon Rossi's 

 mind that he committed suicide. 



Rossi, LUIGI DE (b. c. 1600). 

 Italian composer. He was born in 

 Naples, but scarcely anything is 

 known of his life. His opera Le 

 Mariage d'Orphee et d'Euridice, 

 1647, was the first Italian opera 

 given in Paris. 



Rossignol. Lake of Nova 

 Scotia, Canada. The largest lake 

 in the prov., it drains by the Liver- 

 pool river to the Atlantic Ocean. 



Rossini, Gio ACHING ANTONIO 

 (1792-1868). Italian composer. 

 Born at Pescara, Feb. 29, 1792, he 

 studied com- 

 position and 

 'cello playing 

 at Bologna, 

 1807, and pro- 

 duced his first 

 opera, La Cam - 

 biale di Matri- 

 monio, 1810. 

 His success 



was instant, and several light 

 pieces followed, and Tancred was 

 produced at Venice in 1813. The 

 Barber of Seville appeared at Rome, 

 1816, and became universally 

 popular. Rossini composed twenty 

 operas between 1815-23, these 

 including Otello, 1816, La Gazza 

 Ladra, 1817, La Donna del Lago, 

 1819, and Semiramide, 1823, as 

 well as several cantatas, visited 

 England, 1823, and settled for a 

 time in Paris, where William Tell, 

 his last opera, was produced in 

 1829. His famous Stabat Mater 

 was written in 1832 and 1841, and 

 first sung as a whole in 1842. After 

 living in Bologna and Florence, 

 1837-55 ; he settled in Paris, but 

 wrote little save church music and 

 piano-pieces, dying Nov. 13, 1868. 

 , Rossini had a great gift of flow- 

 ing melody, and his work is highly 

 characteristic of the Italian tradi- 

 tion. There is much that is turgid 



