Proserpine by Rossetti Pre-Raphaelite Ceramic Tile

Painted in 1874 by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, this beautiful painting portrays Proserpine, the Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess Persephone. On Proserpine, Rossetti wrote: She is represented in a gloomy corridor of her palace, with the fatal fruit in her hand (pomegranate). As she passes, a gleam strikes on the wall behind her from some inlet suddenly opened, and admitting for a moment the sight of the upper world; and she glances furtively towards it, immersed in thought. The incense-burner stands beside her as the attribute of a goddess. The ivy branch in the background may be taken as a symbol of clinging memory.