Art and Florence

Art Nouveau

When i think of Florence's style one art movement springs to mind, Art Nouveau.
Art Nouveau came about during the Victorian era. 

Alphonse Muchas produced the following, and serveral other pieces are art:

Art Nouveau often displays a pale faced female with long ginger or red hair. The colour scheme was often subtle, with the frequent use of pastel colours. The images portrayed the innocence, purity and vulnerability of the female genre. Nature is present in every image, most often in a flower form.   


Ophelia

The following images was painted by John Everett Millais in 1852

Ophelia is a character from the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare. Ophelia is the potential wife of Prince Hamlet, however when she receives news of her fathers death she starts to become mad, she begins to talk in riddles and rhymes and sings songs about death. The other characters in the play describe her behaviour as acts of grief. The next scene Ophelia appears in she is given a herb by the name of rue, this is symbolic for regret, and has highly poisonous and abortive properties. The final time Ophelia appears in the play is at her funeral. It is said that she had climbed onto a willow tree before the branch snapped dropping her into the brook where she drowned. However the sexton believes that Ophelia must have committed suicide, and Queen Gertrude says Ophelia seemed to be 'incapable of her own distress.' Though neither versions are confirmed.