Lady Lilith
This is one of those paintings that has a lot going on. You might look at it and think “It is simply a woman combing her hair.” and you’d be wrong*.
First of all, this person is not a woman in the sense that we would usually use that word. This is Lilith**. Some have suggested that the artist, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, didn’t intend for her to be a portrayal of the actual Lilith from Hebraic mysticism, but those people are wrong***. If he’d simply named this painting of a random woman named Lilith in the hopes of evoking the thematic sentiments of that ancient legend, then why did he attach a sonnet to the work that is about the actual legend of Lilith? Coincidences aren’t supposed to smell like that.
One particularly provocative detail in this work is the mirror by the candles. If you had initially failed to realize that it was a mirror, don’t feel too badly; I made the same mistake. It’s a bright, bizarre patch of green that looks much more like a window than a mirror. Perhaps it’s a bit like the magical looking-glass of the more modern Alice legends. Perhaps the greenery shown is the garden that Lilith left in order to live her best life****. This would support the identity of the woman as Lilith of the original myths*****.
Probably my favourite hidden detail in this painting is the face of Lilith. The original model for this painting was Rossetti’s mistress, a certain Fanny Cornforth, who appeared in many of his works. A couple years after finishing the painting, Rossetti went back and painted over Cornforth’s face with that of another model, Alexa Wilding. Now some people have suggested that this was done at the request of the painting’s owner, one Mr. Leyland who was an eager patron of Rossetti. These people are known as bores and we have both the right and the obligation to ignore them at every turn. There are others (quality persons all, with good grades and straight teeth) who insist that Rossetti made the change of his own volition. The latter position is clearly more believable and invites all the finest theories about matters that are none of our business whatsoever.
*You’d also be right, but more importantly you’d be wrong. There’s no reason to get fussy about it.
**I’m not going to tell you the whole story. You have a phone. Look it up.
***Like you, only more emphatically so.
****An unshackled existence of slaughtering infants and pregnant women. Just so we’re clear.
*****That and her white dress, which is almost definitely a reference to Lilith’s perpetual, frustrated virginity.