Dante Gabriel Rossetti Heaven. Around 1860, Rossetti returned to oil painting, abandoning the dense medieval compositions of the 1850s in favour of powerful close-up images of women in flat pictorial spaces characterised by dense colour. These paintings became a major influence on the development of the European Symbolist movement. In them, Rossetti's depiction of women became almost obsessively stylised. He portrayed his new lover Fanny Cornforth as the epitome of physical eroticism, whilst Jane Burden, the wife of his business partner William Morris, was glamorised as an ethereal goddess. "As in Rossetti's previous reforms, the new kind of subject appeared in the context
Dante Gabriel Rossetti subject of two BBC period dramas. The first, "The Love School", (1975) features Ben Kingsley as Rossetti. The second was "Desperate Romantics", in which Rossetti is played by Aidan Turner. It was broadcast on BBC Two on Tuesday, 21 July 2009. Dr. Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) appears in an episode of "Cheers" as Dante Gabriel Rossetti for his Hallowe'en costume. His wife Dr. Lilith Sternin-Crane appears as Rosetti's sister, Christina. Their son Frederick is dressed as Spiderman. Rossetti's poem "The Blessed Damozel" was the inspiration for Claude Debussy's cantata "La Damoiselle élue" (1888). John Ireland (18791962) set to music as