Oil paint on canvas
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<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/dante-gabriel-rossetti-461" aria-label="More by Dante Gabriel Rossetti" data-gtm-name="header_link_artist" data-gtm-destination="page--artist">Dante Gabriel Rossetti</a>
Proserpine
Presented by W. Graham Robertson 1940
adults
captivity - pomegranate
censer
classical myths: gods and heroes
emotional states and conditions
food and drink
fruit, pomegranate
goddess - incense burner
individuals: female
inscriptions
marriage - pomegranate
memory - ivy
Morris, Jane
mythological
named individuals
objects
people
Persephone / Proserpina
poem
portraits
religion and belief
religious and ceremonial
society
sunbeam
symbols and personifications
Upper World - light
weather
woman
<p>In the classical myth Proserpine was kidnapped by Pluto, the god of the underworld, to be his wife. Eating food from the underworld would cause a living person to stay there forever. Proserpine ate six pomegranate seeds, and so Pluto confined her to his kingdom six months of each year. She is shown here eating a pomegranate which symbolises captivity. Jane Morris (née Burden) modelled for Proserpine. She was an embroiderer and artist’s model who was married to Rossetti’s friend William Morris and was also Rossetti’s lover.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2018</em></p>
painting oil paint canvas
12 July 2003 – 15 August 2004
2004-08-15
12 July 2003 – 28 September 2003
2003-09-28
2003-07-12
Art Gallery of Western Australia (Perth, Australia)
25 October 2003 – 15 February 2004
2004-02-15
2003-10-25
Dunedin Public Art Gallery (Dunedin, New Zealand)
http://www.dunedin.art.museum
14 May 2004 – 15 August 2004
2004-08-15
2004-05-14
Frist Center for the Visual Arts (Nashville, USA)
2003-07-12
The Pre-Raphaelite Dream: Paintings and Drawings from the Tate Collection
Tate partnerships & programmes
8 August 2005 – 4 October 2010
2010-10-04
8 August 2005 – 4 October 2010
2010-10-04
2005-08-08
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2005-08-08
Victorian Spectacle
Collection based display
12 September 2012 – 31 January 2014
2014-01-31
17 February 2013 – 19 May 2013
2013-05-19
2013-02-17
National Gallery of Art (Washington DC, USA)
10 June 2013 – 22 September 2013
2013-09-22
2013-06-10
State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow, Russia)
25 January 2014 – 6 April 2014
2014-04-06
2014-01-25
Mori Arts Centre (Tokyo, Japan)
19 April 2014 – 13 July 2014
2014-07-13
2014-04-19
Palazzo Chiablese (Turin, Italy)
2012-09-12
Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde
Exhibition
17 February 2013 – 31 August 2014
2014-08-31
17 February 2013 – 19 May 2013
2013-05-19
2013-02-17
National Gallery of Art (Washington DC, USA)
10 June 2013 – 13 October 2013
2013-10-13
2013-06-10
State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow, Russia)
25 January 2014 – 6 April 2014
2014-04-06
2014-01-25
Mori Arts Centre (Tokyo, Japan)
19 April 2014 – 13 July 2014
2014-07-13
2014-04-19
Palazzo Chiablese (Turin, Italy)
2013-02-17
Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde
Loan-out
7 August 2014 – 24 July 2022
2022-07-24
7 August 2014
2014-08-07
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2014-08-07
Gallery 9
Collection based display
11 May 2016 – 25 September 2016
2016-09-25
11 May 2016 – 25 September 2016
2016-09-25
2016-05-11
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2016-05-11
Painting with Light: Art and Photography from the Pre-Raphaelites to the modern age
Exhibition
6 April 2023 – 24 September 2023
2023-09-24
6 April 2023 – 24 September 2023
2023-09-24
2023-04-06
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
21 October 2023 – 28 January 2024
2024-01-28
2023-10-21
Delaware Art Museum (Wilmington, USA)
2023-04-06
The Rossettis
Exhibition
1 October 2023 – 31 January 2024
2024-01-31
1 October 2023 – 31 January 2024
2024-01-31
2023-10-01
Delaware Art Museum (Wilmington, USA)
2023-10-01
Rossetti
Loan-out
Proserpine
support: 1251 × 610 mm
frame: 1605 × 930 × 85 mm
Presented by W. Graham Robertson 1940
<p>Rossetti explained the subject of <em>Proserpine</em> in a letter to W.A. Turner, who
bought a version of the picture in 1877:</p><blockquote>	The figure represents Proserpine as Empress of Hades. After she was conveyed by Pluto 	to his realm, and became his bride, her mother Ceres importuned Jupiter for her return to 	earth, and he was
prevailed on to consent to this, provided only she had not partaken of 	any of the fruits of Hades. It was found, however, that she had eaten one grain of a 	pomegranate, and this enchained her to her new empire and destiny. She is represented in 	a
gloomy corridor of her palace, with the fatal fruit in her hand. As she passes, a gleam 	strikes on the wall behind her form some inlet suddenly opened, and admitting for a 	moment the light of the upper world; and she glances furtively towards it,
immersed in 	thought. <br/>		(W. Sharp, <em>Dante Gabriel Rossetti: A Record and Study</em>, London 1882, p.236)</blockquote>The subject was suggested to the artist by William Morris, whose wife Jane was the model for this and many other works by
Rossetti. Her own life bore similarities to that of the captive goddess, and the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/painting" title="Glossary definition for 'Painting'"><span>painting</span></a> could be seen as much a <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/portrait" title="Glossary definition for 'Portrait'"><span>portrait</span></a> of Jane as a representation of Proserpine. By all accounts, Mrs Morris was not a happy woman and Morris was a cold husband. Jane
enjoyed an intimate relationship with Rossetti which spanned decades. Rossetti painted <em>Proserpine</em> while staying with the couple at Kelmscott. Eight oil versions were made, most meeting with disaster of one sort or another. This, the seventh,
was painted for the Liverpool shipping magnate F.R. Leyland, as a replacement for a previous version which was damaged in transit.<p>Various symbols contained in the painting include the pomegranate, which signifies captivity and marriage, and the
incense-burner, the <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/a/attribute" title="Glossary definition for 'Attribute'"><span>attribute</span></a> of a goddess. The decorative quality of the picture is accentuated by the curve of the ivy spray, a symbol of clinging memory, which is echoed in Proserpine's arm and the rich folds of drapery. The painting is inscribed
with the artist's signature and date on a scroll at lower left: 'DANTE GABRIELE ROSSETTI RITRASSE NEL CAPODANNO DEL 1874' ('Dante Gabriel Rossetti painted this at the beginning of 1874'). Rossetti, who was also a poet, wrote a sonnet for the
painting, inscribing it in Italian on the picture and in English on the frame:</p><blockquote>	Afar away the light that brings cold cheer<br/>		Unto this wall, - one instant and no more<br/>		Admitted at my distant palace-door.<br/>	Afar the flowers of Enna
from this drear<br/>	Dire fruit, which, tasted once, must thrall me here.<br/>		Afar those skies from this Tartarean grey<br/>		That chills me: and afar, how far away,<br/>	The nights that shall be from the days that were.<p>	Afar from mine own self I seem,
and wing<br/>		Strange ways in thought, and listen for a sign:<br/>		And still some heart unto some soul doth pine,<br/>	(Whose sounds mine inner sense in fain to bring,<br/>	Continually together murmuring,) -<br/>		"Woe's me for thee, unhappy
Proserpine!"</p></blockquote>The frame, designed by Rossetti, is decorated with roundels which resemble a section through a pomegranate.<p><strong>Further reading:</strong><br/>Virginia Surtees, <em>Dante Gabriel Rossetti 1828-1882. The Paintings and
Drawings: A Catalogue Raisonné</em>, Oxford 1971, I, pp.131-4<br/>Leslie Parris (ed.), <em>The Pre-Raphaelites</em>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1984, reprinted 1994, pp.231-2</p><p>Terry Riggs<br/>February 1998	  <!-- end text --></p>
Summary
2005-09-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div class="text">
<p>In the classical myth Proserpine was kidnapped by Pluto, the god of the underworld, to be his wife. Eating food from the underworld would cause a living person to stay there forever. Proserpine ate six pomegranate seeds, and so Pluto confined her to his kingdom six months of each year. She is shown here eating a pomegranate which symbolises captivity. Jane Morris (née Burden) modelled for Proserpine. She was an embroiderer and artist’s model who was married to Rossetti’s friend William Morris and was also Rossetti’s lover. </p>
</div>

Display caption
2018-08-03T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
adults captivity - pomegranate censer classical myths: gods and heroes emotional states and conditions food and drink fruit, pomegranate goddess - incense burner individuals: female inscriptions marriage - pomegranate memory - ivy Morris, Jane mythological named individuals objects people Persephone / Proserpina poem portraits religion and belief religious and ceremonial society sunbeam symbols and personifications Upper World - light weather woman