Dante Rossetti & Swedenborg

ZOOM PROGRAM: This talk considers the influence that Emanuel Swedenborg’s ideas regarding love and the afterlife had upon Victorian poet-painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Looking chiefly at three major works in Rossetti’s oeuvre, The Blessed Damozel, Beata Beatrix and The House of Life, the talk identifies some of the ways in which Swedenborgian imagery has shaped Rossetti’s poetry and art, especially in his favoured subject of the ‘Dead Beloved’. It will highlight the various sources for Rossetti’s exposure to Swedenborgian ideas, locating his engagement within the context of an interest in Swedenborg in Victorian spiritualist circles and amongst 19th century writers.

Dr. Anna Maddison is an Art Historian specialising in the Victorian era. Her doctoral thesis addressed the influence of Emanuel Swedenborg and Victorian Spiritualism upon Pre-Raphaelite poet, painter and designer Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Her essay ‘‘Through Death to Love’: Swedenborgian Imagery in the Painting and Poetry of Dante Gabriel Rossetti’ was published in "Philosophy, Literature, Mysticism: An Anthology of Essays on the Thought and Influence of Emanuel Swedenborg" (Swedenborg Society, 2013). Anna lectures regularly at Liverpool University, LJMU, and at art galleries including the Walker, Lady Lever and The Atkinson, where she is currently working on an exhibition (coming 2027) on Victorian artist John Maler Collier.

For Zoom link, see our web site at https://www.SwedLib.org