PRE RAPHAELITISM

The Pre-Raphaelitism movement was Anti-Victorian. It was aesthetic in nature. It owed its inspiration to the revival of interest in medievalism, during the middle of the century by the Oxford Movement.

Pre-Raphaelitism was originally a painters movement started in 1848 by John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossette, Holman Hunt, William Michael Rossetto and others in revolt against pompous movement of the eighteenth century practiced and upheld by Academies of Art. Following the eighteenth-century theory of Art, Victorian Art showed the absence of inspiration. So, the cause of the Pre-Raphaelitism was a protest against the painters like Sir Joshua Reynolds who followed the ‘grand style’ of the eighteenth century Académie of Art.

It was around this time that Ruskin wrote a book ‘Modern Painters’. Ruskin in this book protested against the Academic traditions which kept young artists making school copies of Raphael, the Italian painter of the fifteenth century. Holman Hunt the painter had read Ruskin’s books in which Ruskin had advised the young painters of England to ‘go to nature in all singleness of heart… rejecting nothing, selecting nothing’. The English painters Rossetti, Hunt, Millais therefore came together in 1848 and organized Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood to put Ruskin’s theoretical process into a practical form.

These English painters call themselves Pre Raphaelites to emphasize the admiration for the Italian painters before Raphael, the painter of the fifteenth century Italian Renaissance. These painters identified themselves artistically with the early Italians Giotto, Bellini, Ira Angelico, because they found in the work of these artists an individuality and sincerity absent in the art of Raphael’s successors. The early Italian painters put on canvas only such visions as appeal to their hearts. Their passion of religious love for God’s creation found expression in the faithfulness and minuteness of their realism. Their art was therefore realistic and also passionate.

Two characteristics of Pre-Raphaelitism which were outstanding works:

Attention to realistic details: These artists painted their pictures with an elaborate care. Every minute detail was painted with such an accuracy and precision, simplicity and directness, that every Pre-Raphaelite figure became a true portrait of some living persons. For example, in Rossetti’s painting ‘Girlhood of Mary Virgin’, the figure of St Ann was a portrait of Rossetti’s mother. But this realism was not maintained for long.

The use of symbolism in the painting was a medieval characteristic and was acquired from the Italian poet Dante. Though a painter’s movement, the Pre Raphaelites became pioneers of a literary movement. Literature like painting is a fine art and moreover Rossetti ‘the painter’, was both a painter and a poet and by force of his personality became a leader of the movement. The other poets who can be associated with Dante Rossetti were his sister Christina and his brother Michael Rossetti, William Morris and A. C. Swinburne.

Characteristics of the Pre-Raphaelite Literary Movement – The Pre-Raphaelite turns to Keats who introduced the Religion of Beauty in his poetry. Since they turn to Keats for inspiration, the Pre-Raphaelite poets became responsible for reviving the spirit of the Romantic Revival. They opposed Arnold’s view of poetry, namely ‘Poetry is a criticism of life’. According to Arnold, poetry was a means to an end. The Pre-Raphaelite wrote poetry for the sake of poetry.

Since these poets were painters, their poetry was closely related to painting. Their poetry was essentially sensuous and passionate with symbolic overtones and the union of the flesh and the spirit.

The Pre-Raphaelite poetry differed from the Victorian poetry in subject as well as system of expression and the attitude of the artists. The attitude of the Pre-Raphaelite poetry is one of ecstasy or even religious worship.

William Rossetti – The most dominant personality of the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood wrote poetry that was pure art. In him the artistic temperament was pre-dominant. His poem, ‘The Blessed Damsel’ mixes very oddly the sensual and the spiritual feelings. It is successful not as a religious poem but as a creation of beauty. As a poet, Rossetti was closer to Keats than to Browning and showed with Keats his sense of beauty. That which was not artistic did not exist for Rossetti. Like Keats’ poetry, his poetry was also picturesque, sensuous and suggestive. His love for beauty was almost an obsession.

Christina Rossetti – Sister of William Rossetti – She was deeply religious and found the highest aspiration in faith in Christianity and invested her worship with a mystical beauty. She drew the pictures of nature and art with realistic details and with simple and vivid imagery. She followed her won natural instincts. Her simplicity, spontaneity, sincerity and melody gives a poem a distinct grace and charm.