Sirena Ligeya

“Sirena Ligeya” is a pastel by the English pre-Raphaelite artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti , created in 1873 .

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Sirena Ligeya . 1873

Ligeia siren

Pastel on paper. 78.7 × 47 cm

private meeting

"Sirena Ligeya" has become one of the many works of Rossetti, exploring the type of dangerous beauty, the image of a fatal woman . The pastel depicts a character taken from ancient Greek mythology - siren Ligeya ^[1] . The work echoes the 1877 painting " Sea Enchantment ", which also presents the image of a siren. Henry Marillier believes that the “Siren of Ligeya” served as an early sketch for the “Sea Charm” ^[2] . In a poem by Rossetti, dedicated to these characters, it is said that the music of sirens lures men and kills them, and in the description of the heroine’s image there are references to the Lilith figure, the sonnet itself echoes the Rossetti sonnet dedicated to Lilith and even directly borrows his images ^[3] . The vessel, depicted against the backdrop of the painting “Siren of Ligeya”, is a reference to the image of Ulysses and the traditional legends of adventurous sailors going to certain doom after hearing the singing of sirens ^[1] .

Rossetti worked on pastel from the end of February to March 1873 in the Kelmscott mansion ; the name of the model remained unknown, it is known that her assistant G. Dunn brought her to Rossetti ^[4] . Rossetti himself in one of his letters called the work “one of his best creations” ^[1] , although he often spoke of the work that he had just completed ^[2] . Pastle was bought by Charles Howell, agent Rossetti, and then resold it to collector Konstantin Ionides ^[1] . At the moment, the work is in a private collection.