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View: In frame
Belcolore
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (English, 1828–1882)
English
July 1863
Medium/Technique
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
26.7 x 26.7 cm (10 1/2 x 10 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Dr. Nile Albright and Mrs. Lee Lawrence Albright
Accession Number2015.3323
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsPaintings
In keeping with the medieval and early Renaissance revivalist tendencies of the Pre-Raphaelite project, Rossetti’s title for this small, circular painting “Belcolore” references a character—Monna Belcolore, a beautiful married woman who had enchanted the village priest—from Giovanni Boccaccio’s (1313-1375) 14th-century text, the “Decameron.” Rossetti conveys the sensual appeal of this literary figure in the model’s unbound amber hair, pearled décolletage, flushed cheeks, and gentle caress of rosebud to lip. The painting can thus be seen as a continuation of the luxuriant, painterly aesthetic direction Rossetti launched with his pivotal 1859 painting “Bocca Baciata” (1980.261), and may also depict Fanny Cornforth, with whom he lived around this time.
Catalogue Raisonné
Surtees 160.
InscriptionsInscribed with title, monogram, and date: 1863
ProvenanceJuly, 1863, sold by the artist to George Price Boyce (b. 1826 - d. 1897), Chelsea, England [see note 1]; July 2, 1897, posthumous Boyce sale, Christie, Manson and Woods, London, lot 214, to Agnew, London for £178 (stock no. 8163) [see note 2]; July 20, 1897, sold by Agnew to Charles Fairfax Murray (b. 1849 - d. 1919), London [see note 3]; between 1906 and 1912, sold by Murray to Mary Pratt (Mrs. Edward D.) Brandegee (b. 1871 - d. 1956), Brookline; by descent to her daughter, Martina Brandegee Lawrence (b. 1906 - d. 1959) and her husband, James Lawrence (b. 1907 - d. 1995), Brookline; to their daughter, Lee Lawrence Albright and her husband Nile L. Albright, Brookline; 2015, year-end gift of the Albrights to the MFA. (Accession Date: February 24, 2016)
NOTES:
[1] Boyce, an architect, painter, and founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite society, was also a close friend and patron of Rossetti. On June 16, 1863, the artist wrote to Boyce: “I shall very probably have finished Belcolore today – almost for certain. So if you like you might come for it tomorrow morning…”. On July 16, 1863, in another letter to Boyce, Rossetti wrote: “I have had Belcolore finished for some days, & thought you meant to look in…” Boyce’s diary entry on July 16, 1863 confirmed: “To Rossetti’s…Brought away ‘Belcolore.’” See William E. Fredeman, ed,. The Correspondence of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, vol. 3, The Chelsea Years, 1863-1872 (Cambridge, 2003), letters 63.66 and 63.73; and Virginia Surtees, The Paintings and Drawings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882): A Catalogue Raisonné (Oxford, 1971), pp. 89-90, cat. no. 160. Boyce lent the painting to the “Pictures, Drawings, Designs and Studies by the Late Dante Gabriel Rossetti,” Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1883, cat. no. 45.
[2] Agnew Stock Books, Picture Stock Book 1891-1898 (National Gallery, London, NGA 27/1/1/8), stock no. 8163.
[3] Charles Fairfax Murray lent Belcolore to the "Exhibition of works by The Old Masters and Deceased Masters of the British School," the winter exhibition at the Royal Academy, London, in 1906, cat. no. 124. He was a partner with Agnew and purchased paintings for the firm. He owned Rossetti’s Bocca Baciata (MFA accession no. 1980.261) jointly with Agnew, and sold it to Mrs. Brandegee in 1906.
NOTES:
[1] Boyce, an architect, painter, and founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite society, was also a close friend and patron of Rossetti. On June 16, 1863, the artist wrote to Boyce: “I shall very probably have finished Belcolore today – almost for certain. So if you like you might come for it tomorrow morning…”. On July 16, 1863, in another letter to Boyce, Rossetti wrote: “I have had Belcolore finished for some days, & thought you meant to look in…” Boyce’s diary entry on July 16, 1863 confirmed: “To Rossetti’s…Brought away ‘Belcolore.’” See William E. Fredeman, ed,. The Correspondence of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, vol. 3, The Chelsea Years, 1863-1872 (Cambridge, 2003), letters 63.66 and 63.73; and Virginia Surtees, The Paintings and Drawings of Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882): A Catalogue Raisonné (Oxford, 1971), pp. 89-90, cat. no. 160. Boyce lent the painting to the “Pictures, Drawings, Designs and Studies by the Late Dante Gabriel Rossetti,” Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1883, cat. no. 45.
[2] Agnew Stock Books, Picture Stock Book 1891-1898 (National Gallery, London, NGA 27/1/1/8), stock no. 8163.
[3] Charles Fairfax Murray lent Belcolore to the "Exhibition of works by The Old Masters and Deceased Masters of the British School," the winter exhibition at the Royal Academy, London, in 1906, cat. no. 124. He was a partner with Agnew and purchased paintings for the firm. He owned Rossetti’s Bocca Baciata (MFA accession no. 1980.261) jointly with Agnew, and sold it to Mrs. Brandegee in 1906.