Pre-Raphaelites

  I went to Tate Britain to view the Pre-Raphaelites exhibition. 
I had a profound affection for paintings of women who have transparent skin and transient beauty. Particularly, the detail of their aspects are depicted deliberately.

  And in most of paintings, women are contrasted with nature (trees, flowers, water...) . Universal beauty nature has accentuates women's transient beauty. I deeply felt this contrast in Ophelia, John Everett Millais which is one of the most favorite paintings for me.

 Ophelia, John Everett Millais

  Moreover, every painting made me feel some narrativity which is completely out of this world. In fact each paintings have different narratives. 
For instance, in case of The Lady of Shalott, John William Waterhouse, this painting describes 

'The Lady of Shallot has been cursed, and so she must constantly weave a magic web without looking directly out at the world. Instead, she looks into a mirror which reflects the busy road and the people of Camelot which pass by her island.She sees Lancelot, stops weaving and looks out her window toward Camelot, bringing about the curse. She leaves her tower and then dies'. 

  After I read above narrative the painting has, I could clearly understand the reason why the   woman painted in The Lady of Shalott, John William Waterhouse  seems weeping and wailing.

The Lady of Shalott, John William Waterhouse

 In the painting, Proserpine, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, I can see foursquare strength of the woman. However she has a sad facial expression.

  The figure represents Proserpine as Empress of Hades. After she was conveyed by Pluto to his realm, and became his bride, her mother Ceres importuned Jupiter for her return to earth, and he was prevailed on to consent to this, provided only she had not partaken of any of the fruits of Hades. It was found, however, that she had eaten one grain of a pomegranate, and this enchained her to her new empire and destiny. She is represented in a gloomy corridor of her palace, with the fatal fruit in her hand. As she passes, a gleam strikes on the wall behind her form some inlet suddenly opened, and admitting for a moment the light of the upper world; and she glances furtively towards it, immersed in thought.

(W. Sharp, Dante Gabriel Rossetti: A Record and Study, London 1882, p.236)

Proserpine, Dante Gabriel Rossetti