Watercolour on paper
Tate Collection
Works with images
General Collection
Art Fund
Collection
<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>
Paolo and Francesca da Rimini
Purchased with assistance from Sir Arthur Du Cros Bt and Sir Otto Beit KCMG through the Art Fund 1916
actions: expressive
actions: postures and motions
actions: processes and functions
adults
bay
birth to death
book - non-specific
characters
couple
Dante Alighieri
Dante, ‘Divine Comedy: Inferno’
death
embracing
emotions and human qualities
emotions, concepts and ideas
fire
flying
Francesca da Rimini
Hell
Hell
infidelity
inscriptions
Judaeo-Christian imagery
kissing
laurel
leisure and pastimes
literature (not Shakespeare)
literature and fiction
looking / watching
love
man
mythical, religious, fictional
named individuals
natural phenomena
objects
Paolo da Rimini
people
places
plants and flowers
quotation
reading
reading, writing, printed matter
recreational activities
religion and belief
sex and relationships
society
soul
symbols and personifications
universal religious imagery
Virgil
woman
<p>Throughout his life Rossetti was fascinated by stories of tragic lovers and illicit love. Here he illustrates the story of Francesca and her brother-in-law Paolo, from Inferno by the medieval poet Dante. They are condemned to Hell for adultery, although Dante has sympathy for their true love and the cruelty of their death. On the left, Francesca and Paolo embrace. In the centre, Dante and Virgil look with concern to the right, where the lovers, murdered by Francesca's husband, drift through hell in each other's arms. Quotations from the text are inscribed around the edge of the composition.</p><p><em>Gallery label, August 2004</em></p>
paper unique watercolour
21 January 2002 – 21 September 2002
2002-09-21
21 January 2002 – 21 September 2002
2002-09-21
2002-01-21
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2002-01-21
Rossetti and Medievalism
Collection based display
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
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
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
1 November 2011 – 21 October 2012
2012-10-21
1 November 2011 – 19 February 2012
2012-02-19
2011-11-01
State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow, Russia)
2011-11-01
Blake Exhibition
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/
2012-09-12
Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde
Exhibition
20 April 2015 – 7 May 2017
2017-05-07
1 March 2015 – 7 May 2017
2017-05-07
2015-03-01
Tate Britain (London, UK)
http://www.tate.org.uk/britain/
2015-04-20
Pre Raphaelite Works on Paper
Collection based display
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)
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
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
Paolo and Francesca da Rimini
support: 254 × 449 mm
frame: 485 × 680 × 20 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>The tragic story of the adulterous lovers, Paolo and Francesca, is recounted in Canto V of Dante's <i>Inferno</i>, and was a popular subject with artists and <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/s/sculpture" title="Glossary definition for 'Sculpture'"><span>sculptors</span></a> from the late 18<sup>th</sup> Century onwards.  In 1854 G.F. Watts showed his moving first version of <i>Paolo and Francesca</i> (Trustees of the Watts Gallery) at the British Institution, and this may have suggested the theme to Rossetti. 

</p><p>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/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a> of this picture is divided into three parts, reading from left to right. The left-hand <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/panel" title="Glossary definition for 'Panel'"><span>panel</span></a> illustrates the following lines from Dante's text:

</p><p></p><blockquote>      One day<br/></blockquote>For our delight we read of Lancelot,<br/>How him love thrall'd.  Alone we were, and no<br/>Suspicion near us  then he, who ne'er <br/>From me shall separate, at once my lips<br/>All trembling kiss'd.

<p>Rossetti depicts Paolo and Francesca secretly embracing, with a large illuminated book open on their knees and a plucked red rose at their feet. The figure in the book, dressed, like Paolo, in red and blue, is Lancelot, who also suffered for his forbidden love.

</p><p>The central section depicts Dante and Virgil, crowned with laurel, regarding with concern the two lovers on the right, who appear to float like wraiths in each others arms, amid the flames of hell. Their adulterous relationship uncovered, they were murdered by Francesca's husband and Paolo's brother, Sigismondo Malatesta, and banished to the second circle of hell. Rossetti brings the story to life by inscribing quotations from Dante's text around the edge of the composition.

</p><p>The picture is executed in <a class="glossarylinktopopup" data-gtm-destination="article-page" data-gtm-name="body_text_link" href="http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/w/watercolour" title="Glossary definition for 'Watercolour'"><span>watercolour</span></a> and in the archaic, medievalising style of this period in Rossetti's art. 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/d/drawing" title="Glossary definition for 'Drawing'"><span>drawing</span></a> is simple and the colours generally muted.  Only Francesca's long golden hair looks forward to the more sensuous creatures of Rossetti's later works. According to the artist Ford Madox Brown, Rossetti began the picture on an impulse, and, working day and night, completed the composition within a week.  The picture was originally planned as 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/t/triptych" title="Glossary definition for 'Triptych'"><span>triptych</span></a> in oil, with the same scenes as in the watercolour, but with the lovers kissing as the central motif. The subject was commissioned by Ellen Heaton but the writer and critic John Ruskin, who had requested five watercolours from Rossetti, bought it for 35 guineas and offered it, along with <i>Rachel and Leah</i> (untraced), to Miss Heaton. He described the picture to her in a letter as 'a most gloomy drawing - very grand - but dreadful - of Dante seeing the soul of Francesca and her lover!' (quoted in Virginia Surtees, <i>The Paintings &amp; Drawings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882): A Catalogue Raisonné</i>, vol.1, Oxford 1971, p.37). Not surprisingly, Heaton was dissuaded from buying the picture, which Ruskin kept for himself.

</p><p><b>Further reading:</b> <br/>Leslie Parris (ed.), <i>The Pre-Raphaelites</i>, exhibition catalogue, Tate Gallery, London 1984, reprinted 1994, p.278; reproduced p.278.<br/>Virginia Surtees, <i>The Paintings and Drawings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882): A Catalogue Raisonné</i>, 2 vols., Oxford 1971, pp.36-7, no.75, reproduced pl.87.<br/>Andrew Wilton &amp; 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.134-5 no.30; reproduced in colour p.134.

</p><p>Frances Fowle<br/>December 2000</p>
Summary
2005-09-15T00:00:00
summary
SHORT_TEXT
<p>Throughout his life Rossetti was fascinated by stories of tragic lovers and illicit love. Here he illustrates the story of Francesca and her brother-in-law Paolo, from Inferno by the medieval poet Dante. They are condemned to Hell for adultery, although Dante has sympathy for their true love  and the cruelty of their death.
</p><p>
</p><p>
On the left, Francesca and Paolo embrace. In the centre, Dante and Virgil look with concern to the right, where the lovers, murdered by Francesca's husband,  drift through hell in each other's arms. Quotations from the text are inscribed around the edge of 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/c/composition" title="Glossary definition for 'Composition'"><span>composition</span></a>. 
</p><p>
</p>
Display caption
2004-08-18T00:00:00
display-caption
DISPLAY_CAPTION
actions: expressive actions: postures and motions actions: processes and functions adults bay birth to death book - non-specific characters couple Dante Alighieri Dante, ‘Divine Comedy: Inferno’ death embracing emotions and human qualities emotions, concepts and ideas fire flying Francesca da Rimini Hell Hell infidelity inscriptions Judaeo-Christian imagery kissing laurel leisure and pastimes literature and fiction literature (not Shakespeare) looking / watching love man mythical, religious, fictional named individuals natural phenomena objects Paolo da Rimini people places plants and flowers quotation reading reading, writing, printed matter recreational activities religion and belief sex and relationships society soul symbols and personifications universal religious imagery Virgil woman