Beginning with the late nineteenth century, a new “Romantic” attitude characterized culture and many works of art in Western civilization. It emphasized a revulsion against established values such as social order and religion and exalted individualism, irrationalily, imagination, emotions and nature. Two famous artists from the age of Romanticism are Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Mendelssohn and Rosetti led very different lives. Rossetti was honoured for his work in his time while Mendelssohn was suppressed.
The musical piece Neue Liebe, Neues Leben, by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel and the artistic composition A vision of Fiametta by Dante Rossetti are great works that are similar in terms of their poetic inspiration, but differ in terms of how characteristic they are of the Romantic era. The Painting: A Vision of Fiametta The painting A Vision of Fiammetta depicts a fiery haired woman wearing a flame-coloured dress. Her figure seems to glow in contrast with the dark inky background, seemingly symbolizing life and death. Fiametta is surrounded by falling red, white and golden apple blossoms, whose short-lived lives signify the transience of beauty.
The red bird which hovers at her head is representative of death, and the butterflies fluttering around her form are symbolic of the soul. The Life of Dante Gabriel Rossetti Dante Gabriel Rossetti is one of the most unusual yet original of Victorian artists. While other artists favoured realism, Rossetti favoured a more symbolic approach. He created powerful paintings which embodied the ideas of love, beauty, sensuality, life and death. Born in 1828 in London, England, Rossetti acquired a fondness for Italian poetry from his politically exiled father. Marsh 2005 34) Rossetti grew to become not only a recognized artist, but also a distinguished poet. A Vision of Fiametta was inspired by a sonnet by Giovanni Boccaccio.
It describes lovers separated by death, and of his last sight of his love, Fiametta. (Marsh 2005 65) Rossetti’s life was one of tragedy, mostly created by himself. He was married to Elizabeth Sidal, the model for many of his drawings. Unfortunately, two years after their marriage she died from an overdose of laudanum. Devastated by this tragedy, Rossetti buried the majority of his poems in her grave. McGanne 2000 102) He painted “Beata Beatrix” in her memory. In the last few decades of his life, Rossetti rekindled his love of oil painting. He then found a new model, and lover in William Morris’ wife, Janey. (McGanne 2000 104) For fear of impropriety, the lovers parted ways, and Rossetti’s last days were spent as a recluse. He fought against an alcohol ad drug addiction until he finally died in 1882. (McGanne 2000 104) The women in his life were Rossetti’s creative inspiration. Their pale complexion and melancholic demeanour became the archetypal image of the Romantic style.
The Life of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel’s life was tragically short, lasting only forty-one years. (Yudkin 2008 257) But her forty one years were full of vibrant, passionate, and awe-inspiring musical creativity, with her compositions and performances reaching almost four hundred. (Yudkin 2008 257) Mendelssohn was born just after the turn of the 19th century, during the evolution of the romantic era of music in Hamburg, Germany, on November 14th, 1805. (The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Music) She was the daughter of educated and accomplished parents, Abraham and Lea Mendelssohn. Yudkin 2008 257) As a child she was well educated and grew to be a talented pianist and composer.
Her father, however, strongly disapproved of Fanny pursuing a career in music, believing this to be unsuitable for a woman. Instead she created amateur music, much of which was published under the name of her brother, Felix Mendelssohn. (Tillard 1996 178) She married the painter and artist Wilhelm Hensel at the age of 24. (Yudkin 2008 257) She played many concerts at her family home, but was never truly recognized for her artistic greatness. While rehearsing for a performance in 1847 she passed away from a stroke at the age of forty-one. Yudkin 2008 257) The Composition: Neue Liebe, Neues Leben While Rossetti’s work contrasted with the stylistic norms of the era, Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel’s work was completely characteristic of the Romantic Era of music. Her pieces were passionate works that vividly told stories of love and life. Her pieces broke the boundaries set by the Classical era. The composition Neue Liebe, Neues Leben (New Love, New Life) by Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel was inspired by Goethe’s celebrated poem. (Todd 2006 286) The poem describes the ambivalent nature of love.
It questions the powerful emotions that bind the poetic persona to his love. The composition starts with a descending line that reflects the alternating masculine and feminine verses of Goethe’s poem. (Todd 2006 287) Throughout the piece there are many embellishing tones chords that are used to emphasize the distress that the poetic persona is feeling. These are used to emphasize the tension that is eventually resolved and represented with the descending run of notes in the final measure, a final plea for his lover to set him free, ending with a conclusive cadence. Conclusion
Both Rossetti’s A Vision of Fiametta and Fanny Mendelssohn’s Neue Liebe, Neue Leben are passionate, symbolic pieces. Inspired by artistic prose and personal experience, the works philosophize about the seductive nature of love. They describe the inexplicable allure of love both in life and in death. Favouring symbolism over Humanisn, A Vision of Fiametta’s symbolic subject matter contrasts with the artistic norms or the Romantic era. Fanny Mendelssohn’s program piece, on the other hand, was composed in the typical style of the century, exhibiting emotion, lacking structure and describing the uncertainty of love.
While Rossetti’s work was celebrated and encouraged during his lifetime, Fanny Mendelssohn’s was discouraged and frowned upon by her family and the society in which she lived in. It was not until after her unfortunate death that she was truly recognized for her artistic greatness. Her works now establish her as one of the greatest female composers in history. It is fortunate that, in the face of society’s expectations of women, she proceeded to defy the social norms thereafter, and that some of her brilliant work remained for the world to appreciate and to revere as that of a great female composer. How I Found this Piece
I have studied art history throughout high school and university. I am particularly fond of the Romantic era because of its fascination with nature, emotion, humanism and inner struggle in comparison with the more reserved art of the Renaissance. During my studies in this course I was notably fascinated by the story of Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel. Similar to the lives of women such as Emily Carr, and Jane Austen, I found Fanny’s struggle to be recognized as a woman and an artist inspiring. I then bought a CD of her music from Amazon. com, analyzed the pieces and compared them to the works of art provided.
