Pre Raphaelite
Pre Raphaelite
‘Pre Raphaelite’ refers to the group which opposed
the Royal Academy’s promotion of the Renaissance painter Raphael. They were
also against the style of painting and the vast separation in wealth and
opportunity between the rich and the poor. They explored social issues.
They were inspired by John Ruskin who wanted artists
to find influence from nature. They wanted their paintings to convey symbolisms
and realism. Their initial themes were religious however they were also
influenced by literature and poetry, specifically those about love and death.
Some of the
most famous and influential members of the Pre Raphaelites were William Holman
Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti.
Ford Madox Brown’s ‘Work’
Madox Brown’s
painting ‘Work’ was started in 1852 and finished in 1863. Unusually for a
Victorian painting, the ‘hero’ of this painting is a manual labourer and many
ordinary people. The other people pushed to the side of the composition are the
people who make a living by thinking; the skilled workers.
His painting is supposed to mock the English class
system, which is portrayed through the dogs in the foreground which are working
dogs, who catch rats. This contrasts the middle class dog who wears a red coat
and a kind of necklace. In the background, however, is a hunting dog that
belongs to the aristocrats who no longer have an important role in society.
It tries to illustrate how the real heroes of the
Victorian London were the Labourers who built it. It is a very political piece.
John Everett Millais ‘Isabella’
Millais painted ‘Isabella’ at aged 19. He completed it at the
Royal Academy of Arts London. It was inspired by the San Benedetto Altarpiece
by Lorenzo Monaco. He took the figures of two saints for his composition of Isabella
on the right and Lorenzo on the left.
The story behind ‘Isabella’ is that Isabella is the sister of
two brothers who ran a mercantile business in Florence in the early
Renaissance. She has fallen in love with Lorenzo who is a clerk in their office
which presents an issue with class and social status. But, Lorenzo is
completely in love with her and can’t help staring directly into her face. This
results in him being murdered and buried in the forest. Isabella is guided by a
spectre in her mind to go to this site where she digs up the body but can’t
carry it home, so she cuts of Lorenzo’s head and puts it in her room in a pot
of basil.
The story came from John Keats who was influenced by
Boccaccio the early Italian writer, therefore connecting it to the Medieval
era. Millais paints a narrative of a long poem rather than just a moment. He
conveys the entire narrative in a single picture.