For long time, we've been reliant on an old and incorrect colour image of Marie Spartali's early canvas. in preparation for PRE-RAPHAELITE SISTERS exhibition we have this image - still a little warm when an e-image but otherwise good.
And it's time to elucidate the title, which refers to an allegorical figure in Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, who personifies Ambition. This figure is named 'Prays-Desyre' or 'Praise-Desire' because she represents the pursuit of fame and acclaim - aka the desire for praise. Quite a bold statement from a young female artist.
Spartali's picture is a self-image, with a cartouche showing Athena's owl, referencing her Greek heritage. The scroll has so far eluded decryption, so if anyone can decipher the broken Greek quotation, please shout.
Iconically, it sits alongside Burne-Jones's 'Amorous-desire', also taken from Spenser, as an attribute of Venus, with love-arousing power:
That is thy sovereign might,
O Cyprian queen, which flowing from the beam
Of thy bright star, thou into them dost stream.
That is the thing which giveth pleasant grace
To all things fair, that kindleth lively fire,
Light of thy lamp, which, shining in the face,
Thence to the soul darts amorous desire,
And robs the hearts of those which it admire;
And of course, EBJ's vision of Desire/ Desiderium is drawn from Maria Zambaco:
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