Rossetti, Dante Gabriel

orig. Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti

(born May 12, 1828, London, Eng.—died April 9, 1882, Birchington-on-Sea, Kent) British painter and poet. Son of Gabriele Rossetti and brother of Christina Rossetti, he trained at the Royal Academy but vacillated between painting and poetry. As an informal pupil of Ford Madox Brown, he absorbed Brown's admiration for the German Nazarenes. In 1848, with several friends, he formed the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a group of painters treating religious, moral, and medieval subjects in a naturalistic style. Rossetti expanded the Brotherhood's aims by linking poetry, painting, and Social Idealism and by treating “Pre-Raphaelite” as synonymous with a romanticized medieval past. When his oil paintings were severely criticized, he turned to watercolours based on literary works, which he could more easily sell to acquaintances, and became very successful. The group broke up in 1852, but Rossetti revived it in 1856 with Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris. After the death of his long-ailing wife in 1862, possibly by suicide, literary themes gave way to pictures of women, particularly Morris's wife, Jane. His poetry, including the sonnet sequence “The House of Life,” was widely admired. He broke with Morris in 1875 over his love for Jane and spent his later years as an alcoholic recluse.

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orig. Gabriel Charles Dante Rossetti

(born May 12, 1828, London, Eng.—died April 9, 1882, Birchington-on-Sea, Kent) British painter and poet. Son of Gabriele Rossetti and brother of Christina Rossetti, he trained at the Royal Academy but vacillated between painting and poetry. As an informal pupil of Ford Madox Brown, he absorbed Brown's admiration for the German Nazarenes. In 1848, with several friends, he formed the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a group of painters treating religious, moral, and medieval subjects in a naturalistic style. Rossetti expanded the Brotherhood's aims by linking poetry, painting, and Social Idealism and by treating “Pre-Raphaelite” as synonymous with a romanticized medieval past. When his oil paintings were severely criticized, he turned to watercolours based on literary works, which he could more easily sell to acquaintances, and became very successful. The group broke up in 1852, but Rossetti revived it in 1856 with Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris. After the death of his long-ailing wife in 1862, possibly by suicide, literary themes gave way to pictures of women, particularly Morris's wife, Jane. His poetry, including the sonnet sequence “The House of Life,” was widely admired. He broke with Morris in 1875 over his love for Jane and spent his later years as an alcoholic recluse.

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(born circa May 21–June 20, 1265, Florence—died Sept. 13/14, 1321, Ravenna) Italian poet. Dante was of noble ancestry, and his life was shaped by the conflict between papal and imperial partisans (the Guelfs and Ghibellines). When an opposing political faction within the Guelfs (Dante's party) gained ascendancy, he was exiled (1302) from Florence, to which he never returned. His life was given direction by his spiritual love for Beatrice Portinari (d. 1290), to whom he dedicated most of his poetry. His great friendship with Guido Cavalcanti shaped his later career as well. La Vita Nuova (1293?) celebrates Beatrice in verse. In his difficult years of exile, he wrote the verse collection The Banquet (circa 1304–07); De vulgari eloquentia (1304–07; “Concerning Vernacular Eloquence”), the first theoretical discussion of the Italian literary language; and On Monarchy (1313?), a major Latin treatise on medieval political philosophy. He is best known for the monumental epic poem The Divine Comedy (written circa 1308–21; originally h1d simply Commedia), a profoundly Christian vision of human temporal and eternal destiny. It is an allegory of universal human destiny in the form of a pilgrim's journey through hell and purgatory, guided by the Roman poet Virgil, and then to Paradise, guided by Beatrice. By writing it in Italian rather than Latin, Dante almost singlehandedly made Italian a literary language, and he stands as one of the towering figures of European literature.

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Dante is a town in Charles Mix County, South Dakota, United States. The population was 82 at the 2000 census.

Geography

Dante is located at (43.038942, -98.185463).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 0.4 square miles (1.1 km²), all of it land.

Dante has been assigned the ZIP code 57329 and the FIPS place code 15420.

History

Dante was founded in 1908 but was originally called Mayo, after H.T. Mayo - owner of the local general store. However, in 1910 when the railroad came to the town, officials balked at building a depot in a town named Mayo (a name which for unclear reasons, railroad officials found undignified). The railroad requested citizens rename the town. H.T. Mayo replied that he didn't care what they renamed it, sarcastically suggesting, "You can call it Dante's Inferno for all I care."

Demographics

As of the census of 2000, there were 82 people, 30 households, and 23 families residing in the town. The population density was 188.2 people per square mile (72.0/km²). There were 37 housing units at an average density of 84.9/sq mi (32.5/km²). The racial makeup of the town was 86.59% White and 13.41% Native American. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 2.44% of the population.

There were 30 households out of which 33.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 66.7% were married couples living together, 6.7% had a female householder with no husband present, and 23.3% were non-families. 23.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 6.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.73 and the average family size was 3.22.

In the town the population was spread out with 31.7% under the age of 18, 6.1% from 18 to 24, 26.8% from 25 to 44, 24.4% from 45 to 64, and 11.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 32 years. For every 100 females there were 115.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 115.4 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $35,833, and the median income for a family was $36,667. Males had a median income of $26,667 versus $20,625 for females. The per capita income for the town was $14,197. There were no families and 3.2% of the population living below the poverty line, including no under eighteens and none of those over 64.

References

External links