Study for Predella No. 2, for "Dante's Dream": Dante Awakening from His Dream 1879

Editor: This is "Study for Predella No. 2, for 'Dante's Dream': Dante Awakening from His Dream," by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. It looks like a preparatory drawing for a larger piece. What symbolic weight do you think Rossetti intended to convey with this image? Curator: Note how Rossetti organizes the composition into triptych form, echoing medieval altarpieces. The repetition of figures, their grief, perhaps represents stages of mourning, each bearing symbolic gestures of sorrow that reflect the cultural memory of loss. Editor: That's a very insightful interpretation. I never considered the composition in that way. Thanks for helping me understand Rossetti's artistic choices. Curator: It is in such visual echoes that artists embed messages transcending time, inviting us to reflect on the human condition across ages.