Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) and his sister Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894) played important roles in the artistic milieu of Victorian England. Members of a highly cultured Italian immigrant family, they achieved widespread fame and exerted a significant influence upon the poetry and art of their time.<br /><br />Dante Gabriel was a co-founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of painters, contributing to a renewed interest in medieval themes and techniques. Both his painting and his poetry anticipated the Aesthetic movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His deep intellect and highly emotional nature are reflected in poems that exhibit a combination of complex symbolism and powerful feeling. He was a master of the sonnet form, as best exemplified in his book The House of Life.<br /><br />Christina served as a model for some of her brother’s early paintings, and she was closely identified with the Pre-Raphaelites. Her poetry is more accessible and displays per
