Dante Gabriel Rossetti by Alicia Graig Faxon (review)

the U.S.S.R. He focuses exclusivelyon painting, with the exception of a short discussion on performance art. Bown, a Britist artist, spent a year (1986-1987) at the Stroganov Art School in Moscow on a British Council fellowship. He limits his survey to Russia, a member republic of the Soviet Union, discussing work of more than 50 artists. His book opens with a historical overview of both the cultural and the artistic heritage of Russia, explaining key aspects of the lives of today’s artists. The program of the Academy of Art, which is closely connected with the government, r e p resents the only kind of art education . A restricted number of memberships to a Communist union is the only way an artist may legally buy materials. And these official artists earn money from their art only through government commissions. Fortunately, the government’sattempts to control creativity have not succeeded, and a restricted but still dynamic activity in ‘unofficial’ art prevails . author introduces each artist by discussing his concerns, approach and heritage in relation to one or two paintings. He classifieshis discussion into themes such as official versus unofficial art, the tradition of monumental art, spiritual search, social reactions and Western influence. Bown’s descriptionsare articulate and to the point. Of course, their veracity remains to be tested by time, as other studies follow. Bown’scareful analysis and research make his book a revealing window into the Russian art world. Unfortunately, this window seems to remain halfclosed. What we see through it, we see clearly: traditional painting arid a little of performance art. Sculpture, which would seem to be included under the term art in the book’s title and the author’s preface, is neglected. The four or five photographs of three-dimensional works serve only as additional examples of a painter’s work. Questions about the existence of sculpture and its relation to painting remain unposed. The existence of contemporary directions such as technological art, or the lack of it, is not mentioned either. Surely the reader will wonder why the author chose not to give us even a peek. In the body of the book, the DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI By Alicia Graig Faxon. Phaidon Press Ltd., Oxford, U.K., 1989. 240 pp., illus. Trade, S65.00.ISBN: 0-71482620 -0. Rmiewed John W. Cooper,Pergamon Press, subeditor, Headington Hill Hall, Oxford OX3OBW, U.K. The influence of the Pre-Raphaelites (not all of them members of the Brotherhood) should not be underestimated . Although in the 1940s it was believed that Pre-Raphaelitism had “left few lasting traces on modern thought, literature, art or social organization ” [11, its mesmeric attraction is now more generally accepted, and its influence, through many metamorphoses, is found in the most unlikely places: in Diego Rivera’sincomparable frescoes in Mexico [21 or in the creations of the Emmanuels, the fashionable London couturiers, for example. But for all their abiding influence, the Pre-Raphaelites remain Victorian artists, dwelling on Victorian themes, creating within a Victorian zeitgeist. It was the very sordidness and hardship of Victorian life (both physical and spiritual) that drove them to construct an alternative dream world [31. This was a world in which, in their own terms, ‘truth’and ‘beauty’ mattered, and in which ‘progress’ and ‘capitalism’ were twin evils to be vanguished by ‘socialism’and ‘brotherhood’,aided by the creation of artistic objects that had as their raison d’etre a ‘fitness to purpose’. To greater or lesser degrees, they all turned their backs on Victorian life and Victorian values, while still having to live and work within its purlieu. None more so than Dante Gabriel Rossetti. In this magnificent volume Rossetti ’s painting is given full rein; other aspects of his artistic life (his poetry, for instance) are less prominent. However , this is not necessarily a fault in what is described by the publisher as “the first fully illustrated monograph devoted to the art of the PreRaphaelite painter and poet”,as Rossetti was said to be fanatically devoted to art ( l’artpour l’art ) and for many years was known only as a painter, although he began to write poetry in his early twenties. Under his...