# Ecce Ancilla Domini! [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [ROSSETTI, Dante Gabriel]() - Date: 1851-1900 - Technique: Oil on canvas and wood, 72 x 42 cm ## Commentary Ecce Ancilla Domini! 1850 Oil on canvas and wood, 72 x 42 cm Tate Gallery, London Dante Gabriel Rossetti was one of the three important painters of the group of young artists who, weary of the conventions of history painting and genre imagery , had come together in 1848 to form the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. He chose in 1850 to offer his painting representing an Annunciation or Ecce Ancilla Domini! to the National Institution \(which unlike the Royal Academy, did not have a jury. This was one of the pre-Raphaelites' boldest attempts to revolutionize iconography by means of an unusual setting \(the Virgin is on a bed rather than at her prie-dieu\) and above all by means of a symbolic treatment of colour, with a predominance of White as the sign of virginity and a small number of notes of primary colours \(blue, associated with the Virgin, the red of Christ's blood, and a faintly coppery yellow-gold in the Virgin's auburn hair. The work was unfavourably received, with the critics complaining that it was too full of ideas and in fact constituted more a symbol of virginity and femininity than a religious representation. The painting is signed and dated "DGR March 1850". ## Related artworks - [A Sea-Spell]() - [Beata Beatrix]() - [Fra Angelico Painting]() - [La Donna della Finestra]() - [La Ghirlandata \(detail\)]() - [La Ghirlandata]() - [Monna Vanna]() - [Study for the Head of Astarte Syriaca]() - [The Blessed Damozel]() - [The Bride]() - [The Love Cup]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()