La Donna Della Finestra [The Lady of Pity] 1881

Dante Gabriel Rossetti painted La Donna Della Finestra using oil on canvas, a relatively new medium at the time, but also a well-established one. What's most striking about this painting is its texture and its incompleteness. We see that the background and the dress of the figure are applied thinly, with broad brushstrokes visible beneath the layers. This technique leaves the underpainting exposed, creating a sense of depth and luminosity. It also highlights the process of painting itself, emphasizing the artist's hand and the materiality of the medium. Rossetti's approach, focusing on texture and visible brushwork, challenges the traditional ideal of seamless illusionism. The image is not quite fully realized, which makes the viewer aware of the sheer amount of labor that is required to achieve that effect. By leaving it undone, Rossetti shifts our focus to the materiality of the artwork.