I know all about having a sweet tooth, and cravings. Here were our options for trick-or-treaters: candy, or a Pokemon Boo-ster pack:
Adults get treats in our household, too:
Safe to say, I think about sweets a lot. I guess it doesn’t help that this song is forever playing in my head. I never get sick of listening to it:
But there are days (usually the cold, dark, wintry ones) where the thing I ache for, the thing I crave, is beauty.
On a chilly but at least bright November day, I made it to see The Rossettis at the Delaware Art Museum.
I loved that this was a multi-media exhibit that not only showcased the writing and painting by Dante Gabriel Rossetti [plus another exhibit dedicated to the Pre-Raphaelites, the movement he began], but his siblings [I am most familiar with the poetry of Christina Rossetti; never knew the work of brother William Michael] and Elizabeth Siddal, an artist, painter, and collaborator who married Gabriel after years of working together.
What a potent group of dreamers! I knew I was in for color, light, and female bodies in repose. Plus soooo many redheaded beauties.
The doomed lovers from The Inferno, again? I find them everywhere!
Also from the Inferno, Gabriel’s Beatrice:
Actually, there are some themes I’ve been encountering a lot in art and lit. In June I did a lot of sunbathing with a fun biography for Christian Dior. There was a brief mention of a French observance of St. Catherine’s Day where women wore new dresses and elaborate hats. I dug a little deeper into the “Spinster Day” hats, as well as the torture device of “St. Catherine’s Wheel,” which, tasteful or not, lives on as the name of a firework. Yikes.
So here is Gabriel Rossetti’s take on St. Catherine:
I was briefly obsessed with Beguines during one era of lockdown and now I am newly intrigued:
But even if I didn’t recognize the theme, some pieces simply took my breath away:
I must be a Pre-Raphaelite, because Renaissance-era art captivates me, too.
This piece, Gideon by Harold Rathbone (1900), pays tribute to the terra-cotta workshop Della Robbia Pottery from the Renaissance period.
And because I keep the spirit of Halloween with me all through the year, here is a copy of The Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti:
The Wilmington Highlands neighborhood was alive with fall foliage this week. More beauty for me to revel in:
Laura Eppinger 