Oil paint on canvas
Tate Collection
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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>
Monna Vanna
Purchased with assistance from Sir Arthur Du Cros Bt and Sir Otto Beit KCMG through the Art Fund 1916
adults
beauty
clothing and personal items
Dante, ‘La Vita Nuova’
dress
emotions, concepts and ideas
fan
individuals: female
jewellery
literature (not Shakespeare)
literature and fiction
named individuals
objects
people
plants and flowers
portraits
rose
sensuality
sex and relationships
society
universal concepts
Wilding, Alexa
woman
<p><span>Mona Vanna</span> explores the sensual beauty of the professional model Alexa Wilding and her sumptuous accessories. Wilding and Rossetti collaborated on many paintings during the 1860s and 1870s. This work was initially thought of as an imaginary portrait of the woman Monna, who appears in the poems of Dante and Boccaccio. However, Rossetti later called it simply <span>Belcolore</span> (beautiful colour), ‘the most effective ... room decoration which I have ever painted’. Pre-Raphaelite models were initially criticised for their individual appearance, but by the 1860s they were leaders of fashion and role models for ‘new women’.</p><p><em>Gallery label, March 2022</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
1 October 2007 – 30 September 2008
2008-09-30
1 October 2007 – 30 September 2008
2008-09-30
2007-10-01
Manchester Art Gallery (Manchester, UK)
http://www.manchestergalleries.org
2007-10-01
Reciprocal loan for 'Millais'
Loan-out
26 February 2009 – 24 May 2009
2009-05-24
26 February 2009 – 24 May 2009
2009-05-24
2009-02-26
National Museum of Fine Arts (Stockholm, Sweden)
http://www.nationalmuseum.se
2009-02-26
The Pre-Raphaelites
Loan-out
27 February 2010 – 5 December 2010
2010-12-05
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
12 September 2012 – 13 January 2013
2013-01-13
2012-09-12
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
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
12 February 2016 – 5 June 2016
2016-06-05
12 February 2016 – 5 June 2016
2016-06-05
2016-02-12
Walker Art Gallery (Liverpool, UK)
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk
2016-02-12
Liverpool Pre-Raphaelites
Loan-out
30 June 2018 – 30 September 2018
2018-09-30
30 June 2018 – 30 September 2018
2018-09-30
2018-06-30
Legion of Honor (San Francisco, USA)
http://www.legionofhonor.org
2018-06-30
Mastering the Masters: Pre Raphaelites and Their Sources of Inspiration
Loan-out
14 December 2018 – 19 September 2021
2021-09-19
19 June 2019 – 6 October 2019
2019-10-06
2019-06-19
Palazzo Reale (Milan, Italy)
13 May 2021 – 19 September 2021
2021-09-19
2021-05-13
Hungarian National Gallery (Budapest, Hungary)
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
Monna Vanna
support: 889 × 864 mm
frame: 1290 × 1168 × 92 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 decorative pictures of beautiful and sensual women, which Rossetti produced in the mid 1860s.  The model is Alexa Wilding, who sat for some of Rossetti's best-known works, including <i>La Ghirlandata</i> (1873, Guildhall Art Gallery, Corporation of London) and <i>The Blessed Damozel </i>(1875-8, Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts). The spiral pearl clasp in her flowing auburn hair and the red coral necklace appear frequently in Rossetti's pictures of women.  Along with the sweeping movement of her arms, the green rosettes on her shoulder and the floral earrings, they serve to accentuate the picture's circular <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a>.  The heavily embroidered white and gold drapery is used in other pictures of this date, including <i>Monna Rosa</i> (untraced).  The enormous sleeve recalls Raphael's <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 <i>Giovanna of Aragon</i> in the Louvre.

</p><p>Rossetti originally called the picture <i>Venus Veneta</i>, and intended it to represent 'a Venetian lady in a rich dress of white and gold, - in short the Venetian ideal of female beauty' (quoted in a letter dated 27 September 1866, Doughty &amp; Wahl, II, p.606).  After the picture was finished he changed the title to <i>Monna Vanna</i>, denoting a 'vain woman', a name  taken from Dante's <i>Vita Nuova</i>, which Rossetti had translated in October 1848.  Rossetti considered 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> to be one of his best works and declared it 'probably the most effective as a room decoration that I have ever painted'.

</p><p>In 1873 Rossetti retouched the picture, lightening the hair and altering the rings, which had been criticised for their clashing colours.  He also changed the title to <i>Belcolore</i>, believing that the subject looked too modern for its previous title.  Despite this, the painting continued to be known as <i>Monna Vanna</i>.  It was first owned by the Cheshire collector W. Blackmore, who also owned <i>Fazio's Mistress </i>(Tate <a class="acno-pop" data-gtm-destination="page--artwork" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/rossetti-aurelia-fazios-mistress-n03055" title="View the details of this artwork"><span>N03055</span></a>), and later passed into the hands of George Rae of Birkenhead, one of Rossetti's most important patrons.

</p><p><b>Further reading:<br/></b>Oswald Doughty and J.R.Wahl (eds), <i>Letters of Dante Gabriel Rossetti</i>, 4 vols., Oxford 1965-7.<br/>Leslie Parris (ed.), <i>The Pre-Raphaelites</i>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1984, reprinted 1994, pp.214-5, reproduced p.214, in colour.<br/>Virginia Surtees, <i>The Paintings and Drawings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882): A Catalogue Raisonné</i>, 2 vols., Oxford 1971, p.111, no.191, reproduced pl.281.

</p><p>Frances Fowle<br/>December 2000<br/></p>
Summary
2005-09-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<div class="text">
<p>
<i>Mona Vanna</i> explores the sensual beauty of the professional model Alexa Wilding and her sumptuous accessories. Wilding and Rossetti collaborated on many paintings during the 1860s and 1870s. This work was initially thought of as an imaginary portrait of the woman Monna, who appears in the poems of Dante and Boccaccio. However, Rossetti later called it simply <i>Belcolore</i> (beautiful colour), ‘the most effective ... room decoration which I have ever painted’. Pre-Raphaelite models were initially criticised for their individual appearance, but by the 1860s they were leaders of fashion and role models for ‘new women’. </p>
</div>

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2022-03-07T00:00:00
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adults beauty clothing and personal items Dante, ‘La Vita Nuova’ dress emotions, concepts and ideas fan individuals: female jewellery literature and fiction literature (not Shakespeare) named individuals objects people plants and flowers portraits rose sensuality sex and relationships society universal concepts Wilding, Alexa woman