Oil paint on mahogany
Tate Collection
Works with images
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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>
Aurelia Fazios Mistress
Purchased with assistance from Sir Arthur Du Cros Bt and Sir Otto Beit KCMG through the Art Fund 1916
actions: processes and functions
adults
bedroom
body
clothing and personal items
comb
combing hair
contemplation
Cornforth, Fanny
domestic
earring
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
hair
hairbrush
individuals: female
interiors
literature (not Shakespeare)
literature and fiction
named individuals
objects
people
portraits
Uberti, Fazio degli
woman
<p>This subject is taken from the fourteenth-century Italian love poetry that Fazio degli Uberti wrote to his Lady, Agniola of Verona. Rossetti had translated and published it in his<i> Early Italian Poets</i> in 1861. The woman is contemplating her beauty in a mirror as she plaits her hair, inviting admiring looks from both her suitor, Uberti, and contemporary viewers. Rossetti’s lover Fanny Cornforth modelled for the picture.In its combination of warm colour, rich glazes and contrasting textures the painting shows the influence of Renaissance Venetian painters, particularly Titian whom Rossetti greatly admired.</p><p><em>Gallery label, July 2007</em></p>
painting oil paint mahogany
1 October 2003 – 30 April 2004
2004-04-30
17 October 2003 – 18 January 2004
2004-01-18
2003-10-17
Walker Art Gallery (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk
27 February 2004 – 6 April 2004
2004-04-06
2004-02-27
Van Gogh Museum (Amsterdam, Netherlands)
http://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/
2003-10-01
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Loan-out
27 February 2010 – 5 December 2010
2010-12-05
27 February 2010 – 6 June 2010
2010-06-06
2010-02-27
Museo d’Arte della città di Ravenna (Ravenna, Italy)
15 September 2010 – 5 December 2010
2010-12-05
2010-09-15
Ashmolean Museum (Oxford, UK)
http://www.ashmol.ox.ac.uk/
2010-02-27
Pre-Raphelites
Loan-out
12 September 2012 – 31 January 2014
2014-01-31
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
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 October 2015 – 24 January 2016
2016-01-24
7 October 2015 – 24 January 2016
2016-01-24
2015-10-07
Städelsches Kunstinstitut und Städtische Galerie (Frankfurt, Germany)
http://www.staedelmuseum.de
2015-10-07
The Collection in Dialogue
Loan-out
14 December 2018 – 19 September 2021
2021-09-19
14 December 2018 – 28 April 2019
2019-04-28
2018-12-14
National Gallery of Australia (Canberra, Australia)
19 June 2019 – 6 October 2019
2019-10-06
2019-06-19
Palazzo Reale (Milan, Italy)
2018-12-14
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
Tate partnerships & programmes
24 September 2021 – 9 January 2022
2022-01-09
24 September 2021 – 9 January 2022
2022-01-09
2021-09-24
Holburne Museum of Art (Bath, UK)
http://www.bath.ac.uk/Holburne/
2021-09-24
Rossetti's Portraits
Loan-out
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
Aurelia (Fazio’s Mistress)
support: 432 × 368 mm
frame: 771 × 708 × 82 mm
Purchased with assistance from Sir Arthur Du Cros Bt and Sir Otto Beit KCMG through the <a href="/search?gid=999999968" data-gtm-name="tombstone_link_bequest" data-gtm-destination="list-page--search-results">Art Fund</a> 1916
<p>This is one of a series of pictures, commencing with <i>Bocca Baciata</i> (1859, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), that features voluptuous young women with long flaming tresses, absorbed in their own thoughts. An object of pure sensuality, Fazio's mistress is lost in reverie as she gazes at herself in the mirror and idly plaits her golden hair. 

</p><p>The subject is inspired by the poetry of Fazio degli Uberti (1326-1360), addressing his Lady, Agniola of Verona, which Rossetti had included in his <i>Early Italian Poets</i> in 1861. Fazio's description of his mistress's beauty (as translated by Rossetti) conforms extremely closely to Rossetti's image, for which he used his own mistress, Fanny Cornforth, as model:

</p><p>I look at the amorous beautiful mouth,<br/>The spacious forehead which her locks enclose,<br/>The small white teeth, the straight and shapely nose,<br/>And the clear brows of a sweet pencilling.<br/>(18-21)

</p><p>I look at her white easy neck, so well<br/>From shoulders and from bosom lifted out;<br/>And her round cleft chin, which beyond doubt<br/>No fancy in the world could have design'd.<br/>(35-8)

</p><p>As can be gathered from these lines, the poem is specifically about the act of looking.  The male poet declares himself ensnared by the woman's beauty, yet the woman can exert this power only as a result of his reciprocal observation.  Aurelia (the name was presumably chosen for its classical connotations) exudes a powerful erotic appeal, emphasised in the picture by her red lips, flowing red hair and exposed shoulder and neck. Her dreamy expression and self-absorbtion render her entirely passive, the object of the artist's gaze.  

</p><p>Rossetti described the picture as 'chiefly a piece of colour' (quoted in Wilton, p.100), and certainly 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> displays a combination of warm colours, rich glazes and contrasting textures, clearly inspired by Venetian art.  Rossetti greatly admired Titian, and much of his work of this period is said to have been influenced by Titian's <i>Alphonse Ferrare and Laura de Dianti </i>(Musée du Louvre, Paris).  Comparisons can also be drawn with Whistler, since the subject, pose, mood and colouring of this work share much in common with Whistler's <i>Symphony in White No.2: The Little White Girl</i> of 1864 (Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/whistler-symphony-in-white-no-2-the-little-white-girl-n03418" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N03418</span></a>).

</p><p><b>Further reading:</b> <br/>Leslie Parris (ed.), <i>The Pre-Raphaelites</i>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1984, reprinted 1994, p.200; reproduced p.200.<br/>Elizabeth Prettejohn, <i>The Art of the Pre-Raphaelites</i>, London 2000, pp.219-20, reproduced p.220, in colour.<br/>Virginia Surtees, <i>The Paintings and Drawings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882): A Catalogue Raisonné</i>, 2 vols., Oxford 1971, pp.92-3, no.164, reproduced pl.231.<br/>Andrew Wilton and Robert Upstone (eds), <i>The Age of Rossetti, Burne-Jones &amp; Watts: Symbolism in Britain 1860-1910</i>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1997, pp.98-100 no.4, reproduced p.99, in colour.

</p><p>Frances Fowle <br/>7 December 2000</p>
Summary
2005-09-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<p>This subject is taken from the fourteenth-century Italian love poetry that Fazio degli Uberti wrote to his Lady, Agniola of Verona. Rossetti had translated and published it in his<i> Early Italian Poets</i> in 1861. The woman is contemplating her beauty in a mirror as she plaits her hair, inviting admiring looks from both her suitor, Uberti, and contemporary viewers. Rossetti’s lover Fanny Cornforth modelled for the picture.In its combination of warm colour, rich glazes and contrasting textures the painting shows the influence of Renaissance Venetian painters, particularly Titian whom Rossetti greatly admired.</p>

Display caption
2007-07-10T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
actions: processes and functions adults bedroom body clothing and personal items comb combing hair contemplation Cornforth, Fanny domestic earring emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas hair hairbrush individuals: female interiors literature and fiction literature (not Shakespeare) named individuals objects people portraits Uberti, Fazio degli woman