"Rossetti's Menagerie: The Condition Of Animals In Victorian Britain" by Jodi-Anne George
Annotation by Sydney Sanders
George, Jodi-Anne. "Rossetti's Menagerie: The Condition Of Animals In Victorian Britain." Journal Of The Scottish Society For Art History 17.(2012): 19-23. Art & Architecture Complete. Web. 11 May 2015.
In her article, Rossetti's Menagerie: The Condition Of Animals In Victorian Britain (2012), Jodi-Anne George, discusses the influence animals had on Victorian society and assesses the effect of their interaction with Lewis Carroll on his writing. As the British circled the globe looking for new places to lay claim to, new species of animals were discovered, becoming spectacles for the members of Victorian society. A popular exotic animal collector was Dante Gabriel Rossetti. It is said the Rossetti collected ‘curiosities’ that reminded him of people and exhibited them to visitors of his Tudor menagerie. To him, the animals were works of art. Lewis Carroll frequented Rossetti’s menagerie as a photographer, and consequently was able to get a glimpse of the curious animals on display. Rossetti’s creatures and collection habits possibly influenced Carroll’s description of the humanoid animals in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland; each animal character representing a human. Just as Rossetti found “parallels between his menagerie and his human circle,” so did Carroll. (George 21).
In her article, Rossetti's Menagerie: The Condition Of Animals In Victorian Britain (2012), Jodi-Anne George, discusses the influence animals had on Victorian society and assesses the effect of their interaction with Lewis Carroll on his writing. As the British circled the globe looking for new places to lay claim to, new species of animals were discovered, becoming spectacles for the members of Victorian society. A popular exotic animal collector was Dante Gabriel Rossetti. It is said the Rossetti collected ‘curiosities’ that reminded him of people and exhibited them to visitors of his Tudor menagerie. To him, the animals were works of art. Lewis Carroll frequented Rossetti’s menagerie as a photographer, and consequently was able to get a glimpse of the curious animals on display. Rossetti’s creatures and collection habits possibly influenced Carroll’s description of the humanoid animals in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland; each animal character representing a human. Just as Rossetti found “parallels between his menagerie and his human circle,” so did Carroll. (George 21).