Pre-Raphaelites


 * Noelle**

Pre-Raphaelites

The Pre-Raphaelite Movement, also known as the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, was started in 1848 by young British artists. These founders were John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and William Holman Hunt. Later, James Collinson, Thomas Woolner, W.M. Rossetti, and F.G. Stephens joined to complete the Brotherhood. Their goal was to bring art back to the way it was before the Renaissance, and before the painter Raphael. They wanted to bring back the artistic styles of the early-Renaissance Italians, who they believed had a simplistic and natural style of painting. They believed that in his paintings, Raphael had turned from natural to artificial subjects (Salem History), and that is where it went wrong. They rebelled against the “frivolous art of the day” (artchive.com) and against academic painting and academic art tradition, which they thought to be unimaginative.

Style of the Pre-Raphaelites The painting style of the Pre-Raphaelites was the complete opposite of the painting style of the Renaissance. The Pre-Raphaelites only painted serious subjects that they thought were important. They wanted to express a new moral seriousness through their art that was not being expressed by other painters at this time. Their work often had been inspired from religion, medieval style, and Shakespeare, and often featured women in their work. They often were symbolic of religion and literary themes of the time. Their style was highly distinctive, and it featured sharp and brilliant lighting and a clear atmosphere, often shot outside. A big part of their style was reproducing small details, so it almost looked like an actual photograph. They produced these bright images by applying pure images over a white background, and tried to avoid the dark colors of academic work inspired by the Renaissance.

Influence The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood had a major influence on art. In the later nineteenth century, English art and literature was inspired by them. They also had a major effect on the Realism Movement, because their paintings were a direct observation of the subject they were drawing, with no embellishments or ornate additions. They also influence naturalism, because they precise appearance of objects and people in nature.

' This is William Holman Hunt’s “The Light of the World”.  His reason for painting it: "I painted the picture with what I thought, unworthy though I was, to be by Divine command, and not simply as a good subject."  (artchive.com)

 Works Cited "Pre-Raphaelites." //World History: The Modern Era//. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 11 Mar. 2010. .  "Arts and Crafts Movement." //World History: The Modern Era//. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 11 Mar. 2010. .  "Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood." //Encyclopaedia Britannica Online School Edition//. N.p., 2010. Web. 10 Mar. 2010. <http://school.eb.com/eb/ article-9061225?query=pre-raphaelites&ct=>. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">"Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood." //Oxford Art Online//. N.p., 2010. Web. 9 Mar. 2010. <http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t4/ e1373?q=pre-raphaelite&search=quick&pos=2&_start=1#firsthit>. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">Schiff, Randy P. "Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood Begins." //Salem History//. N.p., 2009. Web. 10 Mar. 2010. <http://history.salempress.com/doi/full/10.3331/ GE19_1240?prevSearch=%255Bfulltext%253A%2Bpre-raphaelite%255D&searchHistoryKey=>. <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">