Maria Cassavetti (1843 -19 14) was born into one of the merchant families at the center of the Greek commu- nity in London. Her marriage in 1861 to a Greek doctor in Paris, Demetrius Zambaco, failed in 1865, and she returned to London with her two young children. Along with her cousins Aglaia Coronio and Marie Spartali, whose beauty, wealth, and independence of mind made them popular in London art cir- cles, she was known as one of the Three Graces. Each modeled for Rossetti. Marias own ambitions as an artist were chiefly fulfilled in the 1880s, when she was a successful medalist and low- relief sculptor. She also narrowly failed to become one of Rodin s assistants. 1 The commission by her mother, Euphrosyne, for a watercolor (one of the versions of Cupid Finding Psyche, cat. no. 38) led to a meeting with Burne-Jones in 1866, Over the next three years Maria was successively his model, his pupil, and eventually, as he became increasingly infatuated with her, his lover. Her strik- ing features — "[hers] was a wonderful head," he wrote, "neither profile was like the other quite, and the full face was different again" 2 — appear in many drawings from these years, which Burne-Jones used for paintings from Beatrice (private collection) and Phyllis and Demophoon (cat. no. 48; both exhibited in 1870) to Pygmalion and the Image (cat. no. 87c) and Nimue (cat. no. 65). She read Homer and Virgil to him as he worked in the garden studio at The Grange, to which the Burne-Joneses moved at the end of 1867, and perhaps expected a final commitment, which he was apparently unable to make. Unwilling to leave his heroically loyal wife, Georgie, and their two children, Burne-Jones decided to break with Maria; his plan to escape abroad for a while in the company of William Morris precipitated an extraordinary scene, described by Rossetti in a letter of January 1869 to Ford Madox Brown: "Poor old Ned's affairs have come to a smash altogether, and he and Topsy [Morris], after the most dreadful to-do, started for Rome suddenly, leaving the Greek damsel beating up the quar- ters of all his friends for him and howling like Cassandra. . . . She provided herself with laudanum for two at least, and insisted on their winding up matters in Lord Holland's Lane. Ned didn't see it, when she tried to drown herself in the water in front of Browning's house &c. — bobbies collaring Ned who was rolling with her on the stones to prevent it, and God knows what else." 3 The storm having broken, both parties eventually recovered their senses, and Burne-Jones was able to continue his work, exorcising his passion for Maria by incorporating her face into some of his most memorable images. Euphrosyne Cassavetti remained a friend and patron, and this allegorical portrait of her daughter was painted as a birthday present in the summer of 1870 (while Georgie and the children were on holiday with George Eliot and G. H. Lewes at Whitby). 4 It is signed and dated on the arrow of Cupid, whose presence implicitly identifies the model as Venus; she holds white dittany (in floral symbolism, representing passion) and her book contains a miniature image of Le Chant d* Amour (cat. no. 30). The entire portrait carries reminiscences of two oil paintings of 1868 by Rossetti of Jane Morris (also emblematic of an illicit relation- ship), The Blue Silk Dress (Society of Antiquaries, Kelmscott Manor) and Mariana (Aberdeen Art Gallery). 1. See Philip Attwood, "Maria Zambaco: Femme Fatal of the Pre- Raphaelites," Apollo, July 1986, pp. 31-37. 2. Letter to Helen Gaskell, January 1893, quoted in Fitzgerald 1975, p. 114. 3. Rossetti, Letters, vol. 2 (1965), p. 685. 4. Eileen Cassavetti, "The Fatal Meeting, the Fruitful Passion," Antique Collector, March 1989, p. 42.
Inscribed on ribbon attached to the arrow "Mary Z aetet XXV I August 7 th 1870 EBJ pinxit" Dittany of Crete plants symbolize love and are said to be an aphrodisiac and have long been given by young men to their lovers as a representation of their deep desire. Harvesting dittany of Crete is a risky endeavor, as the plant favors precarious rocky environs. One of the many names given to dittany of Crete is Eronda, meaning “love” and the young lovers searching for the herb are called ‘Erondades’ or love seekers. https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/edible/herbs/dittany-of-crete/dittany-crete-herb-info.htm 15/4/2019 A curious fact is that Burne-Jones chose to ignore the English symbol of dittany as being birth, in favour of the Greek meaning, an acknowledgement of Maria's Greek origins, but in the use of the blue iris he reverts to the English symbolism of it indicating that this painting contains a message. The significant inclusion of Le Chant d'Amour would indicate that not only does it refer to their relationship but that the date of the painting suggests that their first meeting was earlier than is generally accepted. The model in Le Chant D'Amour though generalised, resembles Maria supports the earlier date. Cupid raising the curtain was to be used by Burne-Jones as the first of a sequence of drawings showing lovers intimately embracing for William Morris' play/poem, Love is enough, which deals with a search for love and its subsequent outcome.
Rossetti letter to Madox Brown 23 January 1869: Poor Ned's affairs have come to a smash altogether, and he and Topsy, after the most dreadful to-do, started for Rome suddenly, leaving the Greek damsel beating up the quarters of all his friends for him and howling like Cassandra. Georgie stayed behind. I hear to-day however that Top and Ned got no further than Dover, Ned being so dreadfully ill that they will probably have to return to London.
In January 1869 his wife Georgina found a letter from Maria in his clothing and Burne-Jones reluctantly ended the affair.