Pre-Raphaelites Flashcards
1
Q
Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
A
- 1848 - founded by 3 young painters studying at Royal Academy of Arts, London, joined by sculptors, poets and critics
- founding members
— William Holman Hunt
— Dante Gabriel Rossetti
— John Everette Millais - 1851- John Ruskin Wrote a pamphlet “Pre-Raphaelitism” for their exhibition - began to be accepted by the public
2
Q
John Ruskin
A
- Precursor of Pre-Raphaelites
- writer, art-critic, and painter
- distaste for materialism and ugliness of industrializing world in England
- author of :Modern Painters”
- developed a taste for Romanticism (medieval culture, nature in landscape), Anti-Classicism (idealization) and anti-Baroque( Drama, eroticism) attitude towards art
- study of nature is a science, when treated with absolute truthfulness can teach moral lessons
3
Q
John Everette Millais - John Ruskin
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- mentor of Millais
- Author of “modern Painters”
- beauty = truthful study of nature
3
Q
John Everette Millais - John Ruskin
A
- mentor of Millais
- Author of “modern Painters”
- beauty = truthful study of nature
4
Q
Theoretical stand of the pre-raphaelite bortherhood
A
- against the trend of classicism of the royal academy, whose founder, Joshua Reynolds, admired Raphael the most
- medievalism - appreciated the spirituality and idealism of Italian primitives - artists of late Gothic and early renaissance before Raphael
- praised the naturalism and meticulous realism of Flemish painting
- rediscovered Florentine linearism (especially works of Sandro Botticelli - circulated in British and German art market in 19th c)
- created art of noble, religious and moralizing nature - focused on biblical and literary (e.g. shakespeare) themes
5
Q
William Holman Hunt
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- entered the Royal Academy at 17
- followed faithfully the idea of meticulous realism and naturalism of ruskin throughout - treated his subjects with miniature-like details
- faithful to medieval spirituality - his art has heavy moral and religious messages
- 1854 - travelled to Egypt and then the Holy Land
6
Q
William Holman Hunt - Light of the World
A
- an allegory of Christ knocking at the door of the human soul
- details
— light of salvation
— light of conscience
7
Q
William Holman Hunt - Awakening Conscience
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- subjects taken from Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield
- story about a seducer and a fallen woman - a gentleman kept a mistress in a house, she suddenly had a spiritual revelation
- mirror - her lost innocence
- ray of light cast on her - redemption
- extremely rich in symbols
- theme of fallen woman - popular in Victorian art
8
Q
William Holman hunt - Our english coasts
A
- naturalistic study - breakdown of light into prismatic colours
- subtitle - has symbolic religious meaning
- ruskin’s comment: absolutely faithful balances of colour and shade, sensation of the actual sunshine
9
Q
William holman Hunt - Scapegoat
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- in a pilgrimage journey, the painter went to Osdoom, coast of the dead sea
- captured the new sensation of light there
- Jewish ritual of leaving a goat in the wilderness - symbolically bearing away the sins of the people - redemption is obtained
— goat - a sacrifice and also a saviour - details
— sunset scene in an abandoned landscape with bones of dead animals on the bare ground, captured the strange landscape and violet light of the place
— decontextualized weirdness of the scene - precursor to surrealism
10
Q
Dante Gabiel Rossetti
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- son of an italian scholar in england, admitted to the royal academy at 17
- painter and poet, translator of early italian poetry, compared himself to the great medieval italian poet Dante Alighieri
- attracted by the writings of William Blake
- moved away from meticulous realism to establish his own style eventually
11
Q
Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Girlhood of Mary Virgin
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- Medievalism - tries to revive medieval spirituality with religious art and strong symbolism
- lily - purity, immaculate conception
- palm leaves and thorn - sacrifice of her son
- books - virtues
- figures - stiffened, lack of expressions - recalled 15th century early renaissance art
12
Q
Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Ecce Ancila Domini! (here’s the lord’s servant!) (annunciation)
A
- fond of using latin titles - medievalism upheld by the brotherhood
- contrary to the conventional representation of mary kneeling in front of Archangel Gabriel, Rossetti’s Mary is rising strangely from a low bed
- dream-like expression on Mary’s face
4/ symols: dove, lily
13
Q
Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Beata Beatrix (Blessed Beatrice)
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- Rosseti identified himself with the medieval Italian poet Dante Alighieri
- Dante described Beatrice being mystically transported to Heaven in his writing
- a parallel between Dante’s love for beatrice and Rossetti’s for his wife Elizabeth Siddal
- Siddal committed suicide by taking opium - portrayed in a death trance
- sfumato - turned away from meticulous realism
- red dove - holy spirit, love, messenger, white poppy - purity, (opium)death
14
Q
Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Proserpine
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- Greek Mythology: unwilling wife of Hades, ruler of the underworld, could not return to earth because she had consumed one grain of a pomegranate there
- model: Jane Morris (wife of William Morris)
- Rossetti’s ideal female beauty - long neck, souful eyes, sensuous rosebud mouth and luxuriant, flowing hair
- victorian beauty - sensually alluring but aloof