Mariana in the South

Artist: Dante Gabriel Rossetti

1857

Black ink, for an engraving cut by William Linton

99 x 83 mm

This is Rossetti’s final drawing for Tennyson’s ‘Mariana in the South.’ Typically, he does not adhere absolutely to the text: the poem notes that she prays to ‘Our Lady’ (83), but Rossetti shows her kissing the feet of Christ, with a tiny reflection in a mirror showing her kneeling before the cross. The artist also declines to represent the poet’s nature imagery, instead evoking the character’s frustration in the enclosed space of a cluttered room which acts as a metaphor of her psychological imprisonment. [Click on the image to enlarge it.]