Bruna Brunelleschi

Bruna Brunelleschi (1878) at the Fitzwilliam Museum takes its title from a character in Boccaccio's Decameron — the woman brown as a chestnut — and belongs to Rossetti's late series of Italian-named female types. By 1878 Rossetti was in declining health, increasingly dependent on chloral hydrate, and his late works — while retaining his characteristic female beauty — sometimes show a heaviness compared to his best work of the 1860s and early 1870s. The Decameron provided a rich source of female character types, and Rossetti's use of its nomenclature continues his lifelong engagement with Italian medieval literature alongside Dante and the Vita Nuova. The Fitzwilliam's collection holds this watercolor as part of a broader Pre-Raphaelite group where late Rossetti is represented alongside his more celebrated earlier works.

The watercolor medium in Rossetti's late work shows his sustained facility with the technique despite declining health. Rich color saturation in the hair and draperies is achieved through careful layering of transparent washes with selective opaque bodycolor for the most strongly lit passages.