Why it matters
Isabella's brothers realise she is in love with their employee Lorenzo and plot his murder; one of them kicks a greyhound while cracking a nut. It was Millais's first exhibited Pre-Raphaelite painting, based on Keats's poem Isabella, or the Pot of Basil.
Did you know?
- It was painted in 1848–1849, shortly after the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was founded.
- The cut blood orange Lorenzo hands Isabella foreshadows his decapitation.
- The story goes back to Boccaccio's Decameron.
Based on the Wikipedia article Isabella (Millais painting) (CC BY-SA 4.0).
