Ligeia Siren is a chalk drawing by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (DGR) that was completed in 1873. The painting depicts a siren, a creature from classic Greek mythology, that also appear in tales such as Homer's Odyssey or Virgil's Georgics. The drawing is predominantly inspired from Rossetti's own 1869 libretto The Doom of the Sirens with which Ligeia is one of the female leads.[1] Instead of depicting the traditional encounter of the siren with her victims entranced by her beauty and powers of music, doomed to a terrible fate, as in The Siren (1900) by John William Waterhouse or Ulysses and the Sirens (1909) by Herbert James Draper. Rossetti depicts a timeless moment, where contrary to his depiction of her in his libretto, she appears tranquil and relatively innocuous to her intended victims in the background.[2]
In his extremely detailed documentation of his brother's life and works, William Michael Rossetti documented DGR writing of Ligeia Siren as "certainly one of my best things" and though it was only a drawing done in chalk that it was "quite an elaborate picture."[3] The body is that of an unknown woman, however face of the drawing is that of model Alexa Wilding, with whom Rossetti drew and painted often and can be seen as the subject of many of his works at this time such as La Ghirlandata and Veronica Veronese.[4] She is standing amongst vegetation. with an exotic instrument, staring out into the distance. The bird on the instrument acts to identify the female figure as a siren from antiquity, as they were originally depicted with wings or "birds inhabited by soulds of the dead.[5]
^Macleod,"Rossetti's Two Ligeias: Their Relationship to Visual Art, Music, and Poetry," 89.
^Macleod, Rossetti's Two Ligeias: Their Relationship to Visual Art, Music, and Poetry, 92.
^Rossetti,Dante Gabriel Rossetti as Designer and Writer,85.
^Rossetti,Dante Gabriel Rossetti as Designer and Writer,85.
^Macleod, Rossetti's Two Ligeias: Their Relationship to Visual Art, Music, and Poetry, 92.
LigeiaSiren is a chalk drawing by Dante Gabriel Rossetti (DGR) that was completed in 1873. The painting depicts a siren, a creature from classic Greek...
connected to the larger Kraken Mare. Its namesake is Ligeia, one of the sirens in Greek mythology. Ligeia Mare has two predominant types of coastline, "crenulated"...
The Roseleaf (Portrait of Jane Morris; 1870), graphite on wove paper LigeiaSiren (1873), colored chalk The Maids of Elphen-Mere, Rossetti's first published...
The Professor and the Siren or The Siren (original Italian title: La Sirena) is a novella by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa. It is sometimes known as Lighea...
Murals Oxford Union murals (with other artists, 1857–1859) Drawings LigeiaSiren (1873) Family Elizabeth Siddal (wife) Frances Polidori (mother) Gabriele...
Murals Oxford Union murals (with other artists, 1857–1859) Drawings LigeiaSiren (1873) Family Elizabeth Siddal (wife) Frances Polidori (mother) Gabriele...
Murals Oxford Union murals (with other artists, 1857–1859) Drawings LigeiaSiren (1873) Family Elizabeth Siddal (wife) Frances Polidori (mother) Gabriele...
Murals Oxford Union murals (with other artists, 1857–1859) Drawings LigeiaSiren (1873) Family Elizabeth Siddal (wife) Frances Polidori (mother) Gabriele...
Murals Oxford Union murals (with other artists, 1857–1859) Drawings LigeiaSiren (1873) Family Elizabeth Siddal (wife) Frances Polidori (mother) Gabriele...
Murals Oxford Union murals (with other artists, 1857–1859) Drawings LigeiaSiren (1873) Family Elizabeth Siddal (wife) Frances Polidori (mother) Gabriele...
Vetara [it]. Several sirens were said to have inhabited the islands, the most famous of whom were Parthenope, Leucosia, and Ligeia. One of them played...
meaning "white", daughter of Achelous and either Melpomene or Terpsichore Ligeia – name meaning "clear-toned", daughter of Achelous and either Melpomene...
Enyo Pemphredo The Gorgons Medusa Stheno and Euryale The Sirenes Aglaopheme Leucosia Ligeia Molpe Parthenope Peisinoe Thelxiepeia Children of Thaumas...
Enyo Pemphredo The Gorgons Medusa Stheno and Euryale The Sirenes Aglaopheme Leucosia Ligeia Molpe Parthenope Peisinoe Thelxiepeia Children of Thaumas...
interpreted as large expanses of liquid methane and/or ethane, including one, Ligeia Mare, with an area of 126,000 km2 (49,000 sq mi), slightly larger than Lake...
Enyo Pemphredo The Gorgons Medusa Stheno and Euryale The Sirenes Aglaopheme Leucosia Ligeia Molpe Parthenope Peisinoe Thelxiepeia Children of Thaumas...
Enyo Pemphredo The Gorgons Medusa Stheno and Euryale The Sirenes Aglaopheme Leucosia Ligeia Molpe Parthenope Peisinoe Thelxiepeia Children of Thaumas...
needed] Leucophryne Magnesia (possibly) priestess of Artemis Leucophryne Ligeia Linos mother of Pelops by Atlas in some accounts Lotis pursued by Priapus...
Enyo Pemphredo The Gorgons Medusa Stheno and Euryale The Sirenes Aglaopheme Leucosia Ligeia Molpe Parthenope Peisinoe Thelxiepeia Children of Thaumas...
Enyo Pemphredo The Gorgons Medusa Stheno and Euryale The Sirenes Aglaopheme Leucosia Ligeia Molpe Parthenope Peisinoe Thelxiepeia Children of Thaumas...