Music Video Intertextuality - 'Ophelia' and Elizabeth Siddal (Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood)

 


    It was suggested to me that there was some resemblance between the Dissociate Identity character within my music video to Florence in the Florence + The Machine's video for their track 'Rabbit Heart' as seen below.

        In this video there are inter-textual references to the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood as there are shots of which reflect John Everett Millais' notable 1852 painting 'Ophelia' -of which depicts the character of Ophelia from Shakespeare's play 'Hamlet', singing before she drowns in a river in Denmark- whose muse for this piece was Elizabeth Siddal. 

        Elizabeth was an English artist's model, poet and artist. she was married to Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and was drawn and painted extensively by him and other artists of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood including Walter Deverell, William Holman Hunt and the aforementioned John Everett Millais. 

John Everett Millais' 1852 painting 'Ophelia'

        Whilst posing for Millais in 1852, Siddal floated in a bathtub full of water to represent the drowning Ophelia - Millais painted daily into the winter putting lamps under the tub to warm the water. On one occasion the lamps went out and the water became icy cold, Millais -absorbed by his painting- did not notice and Siddal didn't complain. After this, Elizabeth became very ill with a severe cold or pneumonia. 

           Siddal married Dante Gabriel Rossetti on 23rd May 1860, but in the previous 10 years Rossetti had been engaged to her, he had broke it off last minute several times and was known to have had affairs with other women. Siddal became severely depressed and her long illness gave her access to Laudanum - a tincture of Opium- to which she became addicted. In 1861, Siddal became pregnant - she was overjoyed, but the pregnancy ended with the birth of a stillborn daughter. The death of her child left Siddal with a postpartum depression. 

Dante Gabriel Rossetti completed "Beata Beatrix" a year after Siddal's death.

              Siddal overdosed on laudanum in the early months of 1862, to which Rossetti discovered her unconscious and dying in bed after having dinner with a friend of theirs. After taking Siddal home, Rossetti attended his usual teaching job at the Working Men's College. Once Rossetti returned home and found Siddal he was already unable to revive her and he called for a doctor, who claimed to be unable to save her, upon which Rossetti sent for another three doctors. A stomach pump was used, but to no avail. She died on February 11, 1862 at their home. Although her death was ruled accidental by the coroner, there are suggestions that Rossetti found a suicide note. Consumed with grief and guilt Rossetti went to see Ford Madox Brown who is supposed to have instructed him to burn the note – under the law at the time suicide was both illegal and immoral and would have brought a scandal on the family, and suicide would bar Siddal from a Christian burial.

Hamlet and Ophelia - by Dante Gabriel Rossetti

              This creates a strong inter textual link to my music video as for Some audiences that may be able to associate my character's dissociative identity with Elizabeth Siddal, this link brings with it the visual magnificence of the paintings of the Pre-Raphaelites tinged with tragedy of Elizabeth’s death, similarly linking to my overlaying theme of mental illness as well as the idea of Pre-Raphaelite artists linking to the title of my track 'Paint'. A further link to my video is the idea of emotional instability as Siddal was the model for the painting 'Ophelia', the character of which in Shakespeare's play 'Hamlet' goes mad and drowns herself.