Luis,

You are going to love this one.

Hello Roger,

You are right, I indeed love it. But I don't know which one I love the most, whether The Enchanted Garden of Messer Ansaldo that you posted first or this Dante at Verona.

I regard The Enchanted Garden of Messer Ansaldo as perhaps better from an artistic point of view, but since I have a special liking for anything that smells of mystery - and indeed, there seems to be some mystery involved in the Dante at Verona, which I will tell you about only if you ask - I am not very sure whether or not I prefer it. Of course, I am assuming that the Dante in the picture is Dante Alighieri and not Dante Gabriel Rossetti, since the former is known to have stayed at Verona during his long exile (which included his staying at other famous Italian cities) which ended in his death away of his beloved Florence; on the other hand, Dante Alighieri seems to have been a cherissed subject, together with his love of Beatrice, for at least another Pre Raphaelite, as the beautiful painting below attests.

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Dante and Beatrice by the Pre Raphaelist painter Henry Holiday,
which imagines the first meeting of Dante and his beloved Beatrice

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Best Wishes,

Luis Miguel Goitizolo

Hi LuisMiguel,

I very much liked the redhaired woman by Rossetti on page 3, and the Constable cathedral, the sky is fantastic!

This one on page 4, the woman on the left in red absolutely captivates the eye, Henry Holiday really captured the female figure there, even with clothing on.

Hi Roger,

Those 2 Stillmans look even better when I take my glasses off, they are very detailed at first glance, and still look fantastic when blurred, even better I think!

Hi Kathleen,

You have a good eye for art. The red haired lady of page 3 ("La Ghirlandata") was my favorite for a long time among Rossetti's works. As to the cathedral by John Constable (Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop's Grounds) it is only one of several versions of the same subject by him. Below is the version "from the Meadows" that I featured a couple of years ago in my forum; no doubt the rainbow adds to its great beauty. By the way, Constable seems to have been obssessed both with rainbows and that particular cathedral.

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John Constable - Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows

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The young lady in red that you mention really captivates the eye, so much so that for a good while I myself had no eyes for any of the other figures in the painting; it is what we call a voluptuous figure, is it not. By comparison, Beatrice in the middle looks like a light post. I suppose Mr Holiday wanted to emphasize her spirituality but, in my modest opinion, he exagerated a bit. (LOL)

Best Wishes,

Miguel