FAIR Isabel, poor simple Isabel! Lorenzo, a young palmer in Love’s eye! They could not in the self-same mansion dwell Without some stir of heart, some malady; They could not sit at meals but feel how well It soothed each to be the other by; They could not, sure, beneath the same roof sleep But to each other dream, and nightly weep.

John Keats opens his narrative poem Isabella; or, The Pot of Basil (1884) with these eight tender lines. Lorenzo and Isabella’s tragic love, hindered by the differences in class—her being from a rich merchant family, him being an employee of Isabella’s family—emulates one of the most persisting romantic narratives in human history: a forbidden love leading to tragic death.

A great admirer of Keats’, Pre-Raphaelite painter, John Everett Millais, captured Isabella and Lorenzo’s love and loss in a fascinating painting Isabella or Lorenzo and Isabella, first revealed in 1849. Before we explain why this work is significant on this d+ck Thursday, here’s a fragment of the painting. Lorenzo staring at his lover, offering her a cut blood orange, a symbol of decapitation. I hope you have someone to stare at you like this.

Millais was one of the founding members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, a secret group of painters, writers, art critics in Victorian England, who believed that art should discuss serious and meaningful matters, with maximum realism. Sexuality had a set place in Victorian art: it was closely tied to a frigid portrayal of gender power balance. So, for a long time, scholars didn’t look too closely into the shadows of Millais’ work—until one did. In 2012, art curator Carol Jacob, revealed her interpretation of a phallic shadow attached to the angry figure on the left, that of Isabella’s brother.

While some dismiss the shadow as an unintended phallic shape, Jacob goes further to point out that the spilled salt is a symbol of ejaculation. Erect leg of Isabella’s brother, kicking the frightened dog, together with the phallic shadow and salt, is a metaphor for castration and annihilation of masculinity which he realizes when he murders Lorenzo.

Even in the way Isabella’s brother holds the nutcracker, Jacob sees sexual innuendo. His fingers tightly gripping the tool, his hand cupped below, his face tense as if masturbating.

At the time when this painting came to life, Millais was doing some soul-searching on his own: exploring sexuality, marriage, and love. There are some speculations of Millais’ relationship with another painter of the Brotherhood, William Holman Hunt. While Hunt seems to have been scared of attracting other men, I’m curious, could Isabella’s brother be a depiction of Millais homosexual inclinations? Depicting him as aroused by the man who was in love with his sister? Any other interpretations? Please share.

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