The monument to Gabriele Rossetti is crowned with four medallions, each bearing the likenesses of his children, whom he had during his exile with his wife Francesca Maria Lavinia Polidori, herself the daughter of another Italian exile, Gaetano Polidori, who had previously been the private secretary of Vittorio Alfieri.
The inclusion of his children in the monument dedicated by his hometown to Gabriele Rossetti holds special significance, considering that each of them made a name for themselves in literature or the visual arts. They took inspiration from their father’s teachings, spreading knowledge of and a love for Italian culture in the Anglo-Saxon world.
The eldest child, Maria Francesca, born in 1827, dedicated herself to teaching the Italian language, publishing educational books and, in 1871, a commentary on Dante’s work, A Shadow of Dante, which was well received in both England and the United States. In 1874, she became a nun in an Anglican convent, but passed away just two years later.
The second-born, Dante Gabriel, born in 1828, was the most prominent artistic figure in the family, and it is largely due to him that the name Rossetti gained worldwide recognition in the cultural sphere. He published translations of Dante’s Vita Nova and Rime, as well as an anthology of major Italian poetic works, from Cielo d’Alcamo to Dante himself: The Early Italian Poets. His most famous poetic work is the 1871 collection of sonnets The House of Life.
However, Dante Gabriel was primarily a painter. Together with William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais, he co-founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood at a young age, inspired by pre-Renaissance medieval art—the great Italian masters before Raphael, such as Botticelli.
He painted some of the masterpieces of the movement he founded, reviving a tradition that would deeply influence European painting, transforming into the Liberty style at the turn of the 20th century and later into Art Nouveau. Many of his paintings and poems were dedicated to the women he loved, immortalizing the memory of his wife Elizabeth Siddal and his subsequent lovers, Jane Morris and Fanny Cornforth. After a bohemian life as the quintessential romantic artist, he died in poverty in 1882.
The third child, William Michael, born in 1829, led a much quieter life, living to the age of ninety. A tax official for the British government, he spent his life helping and supporting his siblings, especially Dante Gabriel. Widowed in 1894, the same year his last sister, Christina, passed away, he withdrew from public life and devoted himself to literary criticism and advocacy, with particular focus on the correspondence of his siblings and the memoirs of his father.
He was the only one of Gabriele Rossetti’s children to return to visit Vasto.
The youngest child, Christina Georgina, born in 1830, is considered one of the most important poetic voices of 19th-century England. She published devotional poems, works for children, and love lyrics. A fervent Anglican, she volunteered for ten years in a shelter for prostitutes. She spoke out against war, slavery, cruelty to animals, the sexual exploitation of minors, and all forms of military aggression. Her popularity, which waned in the 20th century like many Victorian writers, was revived starting in the 1970s, when the feminist movement recognized her as a forerunner.
