Sigh and Swoon....

If you are a regular reader of this blog, you will know I have a few historical crushes: George Price Boyce, Hot Fred Stephens... well, possibly the most beautiful man of the nineteenth century has to be this one...

Iago (1867) Julia Margaret Cameron

The inspiration for this post came from two different places.  Firstly, when I was on the Wight last month, I went to the lovely Dimbola Lodge, museum of all things Julia Margaret Cameron.  The original may well be in Bradford, in the National Media Museum, but a print hangs in Dimbola Lodge for ladies to feel faint in front of.  Iago was the poster boy for the National Portrait Gallery's exhibition of Cameron's work a few years ago, and I have been rather fond of him ever since.

Obviously I wanted to know about him (for purely academic reasons, honestly) and so off to the web I went.  Most places cite the model as being Angelo Colarossi, a professional model of Italian descent.  Angelo was the studio assistant for Alfred Gilbert, the sculptor, and acted as model for Eros...

Mmmmm, wing-y

However, in my researching I found mention of a recent article in The British Art Journal by the lovely Scott Thomas Buckle, who has offered a decent identification for not only Iago, but also a host of other Pre-Raph lovelies, which I shall relay to you now.

To start with, even I noticed there was a problem with the identification of Angelo as Iago.  Iago was photographed about 8 years before Angelo was born which would make it a bit tricky for him to pose for it (unless he had a time machine, I never rule that out).  As luck would have it, he was the son of Angelo Colarossi Snr who also acted as a model for John William Waterhouse, Millais, Leighton and others.  Get a load of this...

Athlete Wrestling with a Python (1877) Frederick Leighton

Good Lord, I bet he'd be handy around the house.  Sorry.  Anyhow, these weren't the only Italian models present in London during this period, a gentleman called Gaetano Meo was also getting a decent amount of work, including one of my favourites by Simeon Solomon.

The Sleepers and the One who Watcheth (1870) Simeon Solomon

Gaetano is the lovely chap on the right, and also served as model for Love Among the Ruins by Edward Burne-Jones.  However, Burne-Jones painted more than one copy of the image and when he produced the watercolour (the one that has been in the news recently), the models were Antonia Caiva and Alessandro di Marco.

Alessandro di Marco (1865) Edward Burne-Jones

Alessandro was believed to come from north west Italy, from Piedmont, where his original trade was that of an organ grinder (monkey optional).  When he was 12 years old, he was discovered by Frederick Leighton who included him in the massive canvas snappily titled Cimabue's Celebrated Madonna is Carried in Procession through the Streets of Florence...

Cimabue (1853) Frederick Leighton

Yes, he's the one on the...never mind, he's in there somewhere.  He began to model more frequently, leaving the grinding behind him (snigger), and eventually made his way to London where he found work with Alphonse Legros.

A May Service for Young Women (1868) Alphonse Legros

He's the one with the organ, but he's not grinding it this time.  He also got to be all Prodigal for both Edward Poynter and G F Watts...

The Prodigal Son G F Watts

The Prodigal's Return (1869) Edward Poynter

I think you can start to discern his features, those cheekbones!  In Poynter's picture especially he looks very much like Iago, it's quite easy to see it's the same chap.

I think my favourite picture done of Alessandro has to be this one...

The Renaissance of Venus Walter Crane

Having difficulty spotting our delicious gentleman?  He's the blonde at the front with his boobs out.  Now, the story goes that Mrs Crane objected to the fact that her husband would be looking at a nudey lady for hours on end in order to paint Venus, so the obliging Walter employed Alessandro to pose and just missed the relevant bits out. This is why Venus is sporting a six-pack.  Mrs Crane, I salute you and I hope you found plenty of reasons to walk past the studio door.  As it was said, when the painting was revealed, 'That is not Aphrodite, that's Alessandro!'

Scott also suggests that Alessandro may have been the face of Merlin in The Beguiling of Merlin...

The Beguiling of Merlin Edward Burne-Jones

Previously, it was suggested that Ned used William Stillman, husband of Marie Spartali Stillman for the figure of Merlin, and here is Rossetti's portrait of Stillman from around this time...

While it is not out of the question, I think the figure of the wizard looks more like a version of the figure in Love Among the Ruins, clean-shaven and Mediterranean.  It is certainly true that Burne-Jones intended to use Stillman, but it isn't clear whether or not he managed to get a figure from him, and he expressed worry about the position that Stillman would have to hold.  However, Alessandro, being a professional model, would be used to bending about (deary me!) and so would have found it no trouble.

On that lovely image I shall leave you.  It occurs to me I have spent a couple of decades researching the lives of the female models but there is a wealth of gentlemen who modelled, whose lives are waiting to be discovered.  Who knows what exciting stories wait to be told?  Plus I get to spend more time legitimately staring at Iago.

Swoon!