Pre-Raphaelites

Question 1

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

Answer 1

1. 1848 - founded by 3 young painters studying at Royal Academy of Arts, London, joined by sculptors, poets and critics
2. founding members
   — William Holman Hunt
   — Dante Gabriel Rossetti
   — John Everette Millais
3. 1851- John Ruskin Wrote a pamphlet “Pre-Raphaelitism” for their exhibition - began to be accepted by the public

Question 2

John Ruskin

Answer 2

1. Precursor of Pre-Raphaelites
2. writer, art-critic, and painter
3. distaste for materialism and ugliness of industrializing world in England
4. author of :Modern Painters”
5. developed a taste for Romanticism (medieval culture, nature in landscape), Anti-Classicism (idealization) and anti-Baroque( Drama, eroticism) attitude towards art
6. study of nature is a science, when treated with absolute truthfulness can teach moral lessons

Question 3

John Everette Millais - John Ruskin

Answer 3

1. mentor of Millais
2. Author of “modern Painters”
3. beauty = truthful study of nature

Question 3

John Everette Millais - John Ruskin

Answer 3

1. mentor of Millais
2. Author of “modern Painters”
3. beauty = truthful study of nature

Question 4

Theoretical stand of the pre-raphaelite bortherhood

Answer 4

1. against the trend of classicism of the royal academy, whose founder, Joshua Reynolds, admired Raphael the most
2. medievalism - appreciated the spirituality and idealism of Italian primitives - artists of late Gothic and early renaissance before Raphael
3. praised the naturalism and meticulous realism of Flemish painting
4. rediscovered Florentine linearism (especially works of Sandro Botticelli - circulated in British and German art market in 19th c)
5. created art of noble, religious and moralizing nature - focused on biblical and literary (e.g. shakespeare) themes

Question 5

William Holman Hunt

Answer 5

1. entered the Royal Academy at 17
2. followed faithfully the idea of meticulous realism and naturalism of ruskin throughout - treated his subjects with miniature-like details
3. faithful to medieval spirituality - his art has heavy moral and religious messages
4. 1854 - travelled to Egypt and then the Holy Land

Question 6

William Holman Hunt - Light of the World

Answer 6

1. an allegory of Christ knocking at the door of the human soul
2. details
   — light of salvation
   — light of conscience

Question 7

William Holman Hunt - Awakening Conscience

Answer 7

1. subjects taken from Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield
2. story about a seducer and a fallen woman - a gentleman kept a mistress in a house, she suddenly had a spiritual revelation
3. mirror - her lost innocence
4. ray of light cast on her - redemption
5. extremely rich in symbols
6. theme of fallen woman - popular in Victorian art

Question 8

William Holman hunt - Our english coasts

Answer 8

1. naturalistic study - breakdown of light into prismatic colours
2. subtitle - has symbolic religious meaning
3. ruskin’s comment: absolutely faithful balances of colour and shade, sensation of the actual sunshine

Question 9

William holman Hunt - Scapegoat

Answer 9

1. in a pilgrimage journey, the painter went to Osdoom, coast of the dead sea
2. captured the new sensation of light there
3. 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
4. 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

Question 10

Dante Gabiel Rossetti

Answer 10

1. son of an italian scholar in england, admitted to the royal academy at 17
2. painter and poet, translator of early italian poetry, compared himself to the great medieval italian poet Dante Alighieri
3. attracted by the writings of William Blake
4. moved away from meticulous realism to establish his own style eventually

Question 11

Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Girlhood of Mary Virgin

Answer 11

1. Medievalism - tries to revive medieval spirituality with religious art and strong symbolism
2. lily - purity, immaculate conception
3. palm leaves and thorn - sacrifice of her son
4. books - virtues
5. figures - stiffened, lack of expressions - recalled 15th century early renaissance art

Question 12

Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Ecce Ancila Domini! (here’s the lord’s servant!) (annunciation)

Answer 12

1. fond of using latin titles - medievalism upheld by the brotherhood
2. contrary to the conventional representation of mary kneeling in front of Archangel Gabriel, Rossetti’s Mary is rising strangely from a low bed
3. dream-like expression on Mary’s face
   4/ symols: dove, lily

Question 13

Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Beata Beatrix (Blessed Beatrice)

Answer 13

1. Rosseti identified himself with the medieval Italian poet Dante Alighieri
2. Dante described Beatrice being mystically transported to Heaven in his writing
3. a parallel between Dante’s love for beatrice and Rossetti’s for his wife Elizabeth Siddal
4. Siddal committed suicide by taking opium - portrayed in a death trance
5. sfumato - turned away from meticulous realism
6. red dove - holy spirit, love, messenger, white poppy - purity, (opium)death

Question 14

Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Proserpine

Answer 14

1. 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
2. model: Jane Morris (wife of William Morris)
3. Rossetti’s ideal female beauty - long neck, souful eyes, sensuous rosebud mouth and luxuriant, flowing hair
4. victorian beauty - sensually alluring but aloof

Question 15

Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Astarte Syriaca

Answer 15

1. model was also Jane Morris
2. theme of Romantic mysticism - love goddess of Syria abandoned the world of light to live in the underworld - an act of self-sacrifice
3. worshipped for her power over nature
4. the occult underworld - special appeal to Rossetti
5. woman- half-threatening and half-alluring
   — composition modelled on the 6th century Byzantine, though simplified

Question 16

Aubrey Beardsley - Salome with the head of St.John the Baptist “J’ai Baise ta Bouche lokanaan”

Answer 16

1. heavily indebted to the Pre-Raphaelites
2. representative of Art Nouveau

Question 17

John Everette Millais

Answer 17

1. talented painter - admitted into Royal academy at the age of 11
2. protege of John ruskin - followed Ruskin’s urge for realism in his early works
3. Charles Baudelaire called him the “poet of meticulous detail”
4. later broke away from Ruskin and went into the academic stream
5. president of Royal Academy of Arts, London

Question 18

John Everett - Christ in the house of his parents

Answer 18

1. Christ is put into a realistic situation of a carpenter’s workshop; Christ is showing his stigmata - hints to crucifixion
2. child with bowl of water - st John the Baptist, Christ’s cousin
3. recalls the coolness, stiffness and unnatural expressions of medieval painting; symbolism:sheep - christ is a shepherd, red flower - passion of christ

Question 19

John Everett Millais - Ferdinand Lured by Ariel

Answer 19

1. illustratoin for Shakespeare’s tempest
2. ferdinand heard his singing of Ariel but could not see the supernatural creature - Romantic mysticism
3. fairies - frequently painted in 19thc Victorian art - believed to be existent by scientists
4. a real depiction of an elaborate landscape treated with extremely fine realism

Question 20

John Everett Millais - Ophelia

Answer 20

1. tragic-romantic theme from Shakespeare’s Hamlet
2. Ophelia went mad when her father is murdered by her lover Hamlet, drowned herself in a stream
3. admired for the extremely accurate depiction of a natural landscape captured on-site and the image of the drowning girl - the model stayed in water for hours
4. model: Elisabeth siddal, popular within the circle of the pre-raphaelite brotherhood, future wife of Rossetti

Question 21

Edward Burne-Jones

Answer 21

1. Followers of the Pre-Raphaelites
2. mid 1850s - become Rossetti’s pupil
3. travelled to Italy, strongly impressed by Botticelli’s work in Florence
4. influence of Botticelli - women with pale ivory skin, graceful and elegant poses, melancholic goddesse without any expression
5. dense vegetative decoration - taken from medieval and early renaissance tapestry
6. typical themes of his art - myths and dreams

Question 22

Edward Burne-Jones - sleeping beauty

Answer 22

1. story from Grimm Brothers’ fable - series of 4 paintings
2. typical beauty - attractive, cool and unreachable females placed in settings excessively decorated with botanical details - an idealized medieval world

Question 23

Edward Burne-Jones - The unicorn in captivity (from the Unicorn Tapestries)

Answer 23

1. example of he millefleurs background of flemish tapestry art
2. flowers and plants carry symbolic meanings

Question 24

Edward Burne-Jones - Laus Veneris (Praise of Venus)

Answer 24

1. dreamy, languorous and remote in mood and setting; plae and sickly women with typical ivory flesh colour imitating the temperas of Sandro Botticelli 2. venus is being praised by music-making maidens 3. victorian beauty - objects of dream, and desire, but chaste and remote

Question 25

William Morris

Answer 25

1. followers of the Pre-Rapaelites 2. poet, writer, painter and designer, shared the admiration of Botticelli's art with Jones 3. founded a textile design firmw th Jones and Rossetti 4. keen promoter of the Arts and Crafts Movement, england 5. bg: england held the frist world exposition in london, the bad quality and low aesthetic standard of industrial products irritated artists and scholars

Question 26

Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris - "Pomona" Tapestry

Answer 26

1. pomona - roman goddess of fruits from trees; elegant pose 2. plants in the background - like a "herbarium" -medieval illustration for botanical studies 3. repetitive, purely decorative 4. latin inscription

Question 27

Edward Burne-Jones and John Hentry - Pomona

Answer 27

1. arts and crafts movement - bring back high quality medieval craftsmanship to industrial productions 2. morris's company was responsible for the spread of the brotherhood's style to applied arts

Question 28

William Morris - Failure of Sir Gawain

Answer 28

1. inspired by the Legend of King Arthur - medieval literature 2. idealized medieval world - highly spiritual, uncorrupted 3. figures are elongated like gothic statues

Question 28

William Morris - Failure of Sir Gawain

Answer 28

1. inspired by the Legend of King Arthur - medieval literature 2. idealized medieval world - highly spiritual, uncorrupted 3. figures are elongated like gothic statues

Question 29

William Morris - Texture design and furniture

Answer 29

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