Благословенная.
Fogg Art Museum - Harvard University - Cambridge, MA
The Blessed Damozel (1875-78)

68 l/2 x 37 inches

                    Художник Данте Габриель Россетти, рисуя эту картину, вдохновлялся одним из своих собственных поэтических творений двадцатипятилетней давности. Первый вариант "Дамы" был написан в 1847 году, ещё для журнала "Герм".

Священный женский лик склонён

Над входом тайным в небеса.

В её глазах глубины вод,

Застывших на века.

Над головой семь ярких звёзд, Три лилии в руках.

"Я жду, что он придёт ко мне,

Но он нейдёт никак".

Ведь он молился на земле,

А я на небесах.

А две молитвы, сдаётся мне, сильнее, чем одна.

                     (перевод В.Шестакова)

The blessed damozel leaned out              Она склонилась к золотой
       From the gold bar of Heaven;                   Ограде в небесах
Her eyes were deeper than the depth       Вся глубина вечерних вод
       Of waters stilled at even;                            Была в её глазах;
She had three lilies in her hand,                 Три лилии в её руке,
       And the stars in her hair were seven. Семь звёзд на волосах.
Her robe, ungirt from clasp to hem,            Хитон свободный, 
       No wrought flowers did adorn,              Для литаний цвела
But a white rose of Mary's gift,                    Лишь роза белая -  её
       For service meetly worn;                       Мария ей дала.
Her hair that lay along her back                  Волна распущенных волос
       Was yellow like ripe corn.                    Желта, как рожь, была.
Herseemed she scarce had been a day   Казалось ей - прошёл лишь день,
       One of God's choristers;                      Как умерла она,

The wonder was not yet quite gone           И изумлением ещё
       From that still look of hers;                  Была она полна.
Albeit, to them she left, her day                  Но там считался этот день
       Had counted as ten years.                  За десять лет сполна.
(To one, it is ten years of years.
        . . . Yet now, and in this place,
Surely she leaned o'er me — her hair      Вы думали это я напереводил?
       Fell all about my face. . . .                      А вот и нет.                              Nothing: the autumn-fall of leaves.           

                                                                      Перевод М. Фромана.

       The whole year sets apace.)
It was the rampart of God's house
       That she was standing on;
By God built over the sheer depth
       The which is Space begun;
So high, that looking downward thence
       She scarce could see the sun.
It lies in Heaven, across the flood
       Of ether, as a bridge.
Beneath, the tides of day and night
       With flame and darkness ridge
The void, as low as where this earth
       Spins like a fretful midge.

Around her, lovers, newly met
       'Mid deathless love's acclaims,
Spoke evermore among themselves
       Their heart-remembered names;
And the souls mounting up to God
       Went by her like thin flames.
And still she bowed herself and stooped
       Out of the circling charm;
Until her bosom must have made
       The bar she leaned on warm,
And the lilies lay as if asleep
       Along her bended arm.
From the fixed place of Heaven she saw
       Time like a pulse shake fierce
Through all the worlds. Her gaze still strove
       Within the gulf to pierce
Its path; and now she spoke as when
       The stars sang in their spheres.
The sun was gone now; the curled moon
       Was like a little feather
Fluttering far down the gulf; and now
       She spoke through the still weather.

Her voice was like the voice of the stars
       Had when they sang together.
(Ah sweet! Even now, in that bird's song,
       Strove not her accents there,
Fain to be hearkened? When those bells
       Possessed the mid-day air,
Strove not her steps to reach my side
       Down all the echoing stair?)
'I wish that he were come to me,
       For he will come,' she said.
       Lord, Lord, has he not pray'd?
Are not two prayers a perfect strength?
       And shall I feel afraid?
'When round his head the aureole clings,
       And he is clothed in white,
I'll take his hand and go with him
       To the deep wells of light;
As unto a stream we will step down,
       And bathe there in God's sight.
'We two will stand beside that shrine,
       Occult, withheld, untrod,

Whose lamps are stirred continually
       With prayer sent up to God;
And see our old prayers, granted, melt
       Each like a little cloud.
'We two will lie i' the shadow of
       That living mystic tree
Within whose secret growth the Dove
       Is sometimes felt to be,
While every leaf that His plumes touch
       Saith His Name audibly.
'And I myself will teach to him,
       I myself, lying so,
The songs I sing here; which his voice
       Shall pause in, hushed and slow,
And find some knowledge at each pause,
       Or some new thing to know.'
(Alas! We two, we two, thou say'st!
       Yea, one wast thou with me
That once of old. But shall God lift
       To endless unity
       Was but its love for thee?)

'We two,' she said, 'will seek the groves
       Where the lady Mary is,
With her five handmaidens, whose names
       Are five sweet symphonies,
Cecily, Gertrude, Magdalen,
       Margaret and Rosalys.
'Circlewise sit they, with bound locks
       And foreheads garlanded;
Into the fine cloth white like flame
       Weaving the golden thread,
To fashion the birth-robes for them
       Who are just born, being dead.
'He shall fear, haply, and be dumb:
       Then will I lay my cheek
To his, and tell about our love,
       Not once abashed or weak:
And the dear Mother will approve
       My pride, and let me speak.
'Herself shall bring us, hand in hand,
       To him round whom all souls
Kneel, the clear-ranged unnumbered heads
       Bowed with their aureoles:

And angels meeting us shall sing
       To their citherns and citoles.
'There will I ask of Christ the Lord
       Thus much for him and me: —
Only to live as once on earth
       With Love, — only to be,
As then awhile, for ever now
       Together, I and he.'
She gazed and listened and then said,
       Less sad of speech than mild, —
'All this is when he comes.' She ceased.
       The light thrilled towards her, fill'd
With angels in strong level flight.
       Her eyes prayed, and she smil'd.
(I saw her smile.) But soon their path
       Was vague in distant spheres:
And then she cast her arms along
       The golden barriers,
And laid her face between her hands,
       And wept. (I heard her tears.)

               В 1870 году поэма Blessed Damozel переиздаётся в собрании сочинений Россетти. Уильям Грехем, патрон Россетти, заказывает ему картину по этому сюжету. Россетти пишет картину на манер итальянских алтарных икон 14-15 веков. В верхней части, символизирующей небесную, вечную жизнь, изображена прекрасная женщина, смотрящая вниз с небесного балкона, вокруг неё заключают друг друга в объятья среди невянущих райских роз вновь соединившиеся на небесах ангелы - возлюбленные. В нижней части, изображающей земную юдоль, возлежит молодой возлюбленный, обративший взор на небеса. Он мечтает о смерти и встрече с любимой.   Модель - Алекса Вайлдинг. Картина представляет характерный для Россетти вариант эротического мистицизма. 

МИФОЛОГИЯ и символы:

        В руках женщины три лии, символизирующие чистоту. Семь звёзд - это созвездие Плеяды, одна звезда скрыта за головой Дамы. Плеяды - семь дочерей Атласа и Плейоны (нимфы океана). Плейона была нимфой океана и жила на горе Кулен в Аркадии (южная Греция). Она была женой титана Атласа и родила ему целый выводок прекрасных дочерей. Её можно считать почти нимфой стадов, она покровительствовала множеству животных, а её сын Гермес стал богом животноводства.Скрытая  плеяда, это Электра, которая закрыла лицо при виде пылающей Трои, потом она являлась смертным только как комета.

             Rossetti used his most famous poem as the inspiration for this painting 25 yearsafter publishing it. He wrote the first version of 'The Blessed Damozel' in 1847.The theme was inspired by Dante Alighieri.The maiden leans out of her balcony in heaven while behind her newly reconciled lovers embrace one another among the deathless roses of heaven. She seesher lover lying fully corporal on earth and yearns for his death, so that he mightjoin her forever in heaven.The seven stars are The Pleiads. One star is hidden behind her head.

Mythology:

        The Pleiads were the seven daughters of Atlas and Pleione. "The lost pleiad"is Electra, who veiled her face at the burning of Troy, appearing to mortals
afterwards only as a comet... 

                PLEIONE was an Okeanid nymph of Mount Kyllene in Arkadia (southern Greece). She was the wife of the Titan Atlas, who bore him a bevy of beautiful daughters. She may have been numbered amongst the Epimelides (nymphs of the flocks) and presided over the multiplication of the animals, for her name means "to increase in number" and her grandson, Hermes, was the god of animal husbandry.

  Влюблённый, оплакивающий утраченную возлюбленную. Mourning lover. 

Lovers in heaven.     Влюблённые на небесах.

The Blessed Damozel (alternative study for the central figure)

1873 or 1875 (circa)