Maria Theresa Zambaco

Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his student Edward Burne-Jones were both highly fascinated by the young painter and sculptor Maria Theresa Zambaco, whom they both immortalized in 1870. In Rossetti's painting she is shown by her delicate skin, which shines through the robe similar to an ancient Greek chlamys, in the type of "femme fragile" so popular with the Pre-Raphaelites. While Rossetti negates any concrete reference to the location of the portrait in order to celebrate Zambaco’s individual beauty in a timeless context, Burne-Jones creates a painted declaration of love.