Dante Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, painter and translator. He founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais, and was later to be the main inspiration for a second generation of artists and writers influenced by the movement, most notably William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones. His work also influenced the European Symbolists and was a major precursor of the Aesthetic movement.

Rossetti's art was characterised by its sensuality and its medieval revivalism. His early poetry was influenced by John Keats. He is considered one of the most unconventional painters of the 19th century. Through his methods, he distinguished himself from the Preraffaelite movement; he showed no interest on the exact representation of details, avoided complicated backgrounds, and tended away from landscapes. He hence chose primarily mythological or literary motives, though with no narrative moment.