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Art History Day
"🎶 Greensleeves was all my joy
Greensleeves was my delight
Greensleeves was my heart of gold
And who but my lady Greensleeves."
~Traditional, 16th century
This vibrant and richly hued tartan draws its inspiration from a traditional English folk tune—a lover’s lament—and from its most famous artistic interpretation, Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s namesake painting. Rossetti, along with John Everett Millais, William Holman Hunt, Edward Burne-Jones, Ford Madox Brown, and Elizabeth Siddal, founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood on this very day in 1848.
What began as a small circle of English artists soon became a powerful movement, seeking to return to the vivid color, intricate detail, and layered compositions of early Renaissance art before Raphael. Rejecting the mechanization of the Victorian age, the Brotherhood embraced medieval themes, natural beauty, and romantic ideals. Their works often featured ethereal women with flowing red hair, set against dreamlike, mythical backdrops.
In keeping with 16th-century symbolism, green was regarded as a color of “lightness in love,” signaling inconstancy or even promiscuity. The Brotherhood’s fascination with history, medievalism, and nature profoundly influenced the art world, leaving a lasting impression not only in England but also in Scotland and among Scottish artists. Their legacy experienced a major revival in the late 20th century, shaping modern film, fashion, and photography while renewing fascination with the often dramatic lives of their muses—women like the flame-haired Elizabeth Siddal, Fanny Cornforth, Alexa Wilding, Effie Gray, and Jane Morris.
Amid all this, Rossetti nurtured another passion beyond art and love: his pet wombat, “Top,” whom he once described, with equal intensity, as “the joy of his life.” 💚 🧡 💛 ♥️ 🎨 🖌️
Today marks the 1848 founding of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and critics, founded in 1848 by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. The three founders were joined by William Michael Rossetti, James Collinson, Frederic George Stephens and Thomas Woolner to form the seven-member "brotherhood".
The group's intention was to reform art by rejecting what it considered the mechanistic approach first adopted by the Mannerist artists who succeeded Raphael and Michelangelo. Its members believed the classical poses and elegant compositions of Raphael in particular had been a corrupting influence on the academic teaching of art, hence the name "Pre-Raphaelite."
The brotherhood sought a return to the abundant detail, intense colours and complex compositions of Quattrocento Italian art.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, illustrator, painter and translator and the pimary founder, was later to be the main inspiration for a second generation of artists and writers influenced by the movement, most notably William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones. His work also influenced the European Symbolists and was a major precursor of the Aesthetic movement.
Rossetti's art was characterised by its sensuality and its medieval revivalism. Several portraits show ladies in green, including the one above, titled "Greensleeves".
Designed by Carol A.L. Martin, this tartan also recalls the colors associated with the Lady Greensleeves, the name of familiar ballad often assumed to have been composed by King Henry VIII. Scholars note, however, that the piece is based on an Italian style of composition that did not reach England until after Henry's death, making it more likely Elizabethan in origin.
The first verses of many begin:
Alas, my love, you do me wrong,
To cast me off discourteously.
For I have loved you well and long,
Delighting in your company.
Greensleeves was all my joy
Greensleeves was my delight,
Greensleeves was my heart of gold,
And who but my lady greensleeves.
At the time of its likely origin, the word "green" had sexual connotations, most notably in the phrase "a green gown" which was a euphemism indicating the staining of garments in the green grass during lovers' trysts. And in Chaucer’s age, green was also an indicator colour of lightness in love.
For more on Rosetti's muses and models, click the portrait.