The Girlhood of Mary Virgin
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
1848-9 - Oil on canvas
Tate Gallery, London

This piece is Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s first major oil painting and his first true piece of Pre - Raphaelite art. Holman Hunt oversaw Rossetti’s work on this picture and this is the first piece to be exhibited with the mysterious initials PRB (Pre - Raphaelite Brotherhood) on it. Rossetti initially wanted to include The Girlhood of Mary Virgin as part of a triptych, but he soon realized the enormity of the work. The Virgin Mary is shown in this painting as a young girl, working on an embroidery with her mother, St. Anne, while her father, St. Joachim, is pruning the vine. The picture is full of symbolic references to the life of Christ: the dove which alludes to the Holy Spirit, the vine to Christian truth, the rose on the windowsill, and the lamp as a symbol of piety. The lily, symbolizing Mary's purity, is being grown in a pot and carefully tended by a child angel. This refers to the Angel Gabriel who will later announce to Mary that she is to bear the Son of God. The palm branch on the floor and thorny briar rose on the wall allude to Christ’s Passion and the books to the virtues of hope, faith and charity.  Though Rossetti was guided through the creation of this piece of work, the prominent foreground and the hazy background are in contrast to the carefully defined landscapes of both Rossetti’s mentors, and do not exactly flow with the newly formed Pre - Raphaelite style.