Pre-Raphaelite Movement in Art and Literature

 How did the Pre-Raphaelites change Art and Literature?

Raphael was a famous Italian painter from the Renaissance period. He lived in the early 1500s and was known for painting beautiful religious scenes, graceful people, and perfect compositions. His paintings were smooth, balanced, and followed classical rules of beauty. He became a symbol of ideal art, and for many years, art schools in Europe taught students to follow his style.

For example, in "The School of Athens", Raphael painted great philosophers like Plato and Aristotle in a grand, peaceful setting. The figures are idealized and arranged in perfect balance, showing harmony and order. Another painting, "Sistine Madonna", shows the Virgin Mary holding baby Jesus, with soft colours and gentle expressions that look almost divine.

    

            The School of Athens                                            Sistine Madonna

However, in the 1800s, a group of young artists and poets in England, called the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, began to reject this style of art. They felt that Raphael’s art, though beautiful, was too ideal and did not show real emotions, natural detail, or moral depth. They believed that art had become too polished and artificial after Raphael’s time.

The Influence of Early Renaissance Painters

 The Pre-Raphaelites wanted to go back to the styles of artists who lived before Raphael, especially from the Quattrocento period (the 1400s in Italy). The Pre-Raphaelites were inspired by artists who came before Raphael, especially early Italian painters like Giotto, Fra Angelico, Botticelli, and others from the 14th and 15th centuries. These earlier painters did not always follow perfect perspective or ideal beauty, but their works showed sincerity, spirituality, and strong human emotion. For example:

·    Giotto’s frescoes in churches show real human sorrow and divine hope with simple, moving faces.

frescoes in the Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi

[frescoes - a painting done rapidly in watercolour on wet plaster on a wall or ceiling, so that the colours penetrate the plaster and become fixed as it dries]

·    Fra Angelico’s Annunciations are quiet and spiritual, showing faith and humility rather than dramatic effects.

[Annunciations - the announcement about the birth of Jesus by the angel Gabriel to Mary]

·    Botticelli’s works like “The Birth of Venus” blend myth with a soft, dreamlike quality, full of grace and feeling.

The Pre-Raphaelites admired how these artists showed truth in emotion—such as grief, innocence, love, or guilt—not by grand gestures, but through small details, facial expressions, and natural surroundings. They also appreciated how the early painters paid attention to every flower, fabric, or sky, which made their works feel honest and alive.

 John Ruskin, a powerful art critic of the time, supported the Pre-Raphaelites. He encouraged artists to “go to nature” and praised the Brotherhood for their moral seriousness and attention to truth. The Pre-Raphaelites also opposed the elegant, mechanical look of Mannerist artists (who came after Raphael and Michelangelo). They also created a magazine called The Germ in 1850, edited by William Michael Rossetti, to publish poems and essays that spread their ideas. Their discussions and debates were recorded in the Pre-Raphaelite Journal.

They strongly disliked the style taught by Sir Joshua Reynolds, founder of the Royal Academy in England. They even mocked him by calling him "Sir Sloshua" because they felt his art was lazy and too traditional. To the Pre Raphaelites, according to William Michael Rossetti, "sloshy" meant "anything lax or scamped in the process of painting ... and hence ... anything or person of a commonplace or conventional kind". To them, “sloshy” meant dull, shallow, or carelessly done.

Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire with her infant daughter Lady Georgiana Cavendish, 1784

Characteristics of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

The Pre-Raphaelites aimed to produce art that showed:

·       Genuine ideas and feelings

·       Close observation of nature

·       Deep respect for truth and detail

·       Emotion, especially in expressions and setting

They painted with bright, jewel-like colours, often on a wet white background, to make the colours shine clearly. This technique was developed by Millais and Hunt, inspired by early Renaissance methods. They also followed the traditional aim of mimesis—to imitate nature truthfully.

 John Everett Millais’ Mariana(1851) from Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure

Mariana is about to be married but is rejected by her fiancé Angelo when her dowry is lost in the shipwreck that also killed her brother. She retreats to a solitary existence in a moated house.

For example:

·       "Ophelia" by Millais shows a drowned woman from Shakespeare's Hamlet floating in water after her tragic death. The painting shows raw emotion—grief and loss—set in a field full of real plants and water. The flowers and nature are painted in great detail, showing the artist’s love for truth in nature.

·       "The Awakening Conscience" by Hunt shows a woman suddenly realizing her moral downfall while in a room with her lover. The painting is full of symbolic objects—a caged bird, discarded gloves, sunlight falling on her face—all pointing to her inner awakening. This is emotional storytelling through visual detail

Influence on Pre-Raphaelite Poets

The Brotherhood was not just about painting but also poetry. Poets in the group, especially Dante Gabriel Rossetti, were deeply influenced by these early Italian artists. Rossetti was fascinated by medieval themes, religious devotion, and symbolic beauty. He even translated Italian poetry, such as works by Dante Alighieri, and created poems and paintings that reflected this love for the past.

In his poem "The Blessed Damozel", Rossetti writes about a young woman in heaven longing for her lover on Earth. The poem is filled with rich visual imagery—flowers, stars, golden robes—just like an early Renaissance painting. His work combined medieval spirituality with romantic emotion, similar to the paintings that inspired him.

The blessed damozel leaned out

From the gold bar of Heaven;

Her eyes were deeper than the depth

Of waters stilled at even;

She had three lilies in her hand,

And the stars in her hair were seven.

The Pre-Raphaelites believed that true art should stir the soul, reflect deep moral or spiritual ideas, and be rooted in the natural world. This is the "truth and emotion" they found missing in Raphael’s idealized style, but present in the older works.

Examples

·       Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s romantic and mystical poems like “The House of Life”

·       Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market”, a symbolic poem full of moral and emotional power

·       Algernon Charles Swinburne’s “Poems and Ballads” and the tragedy “Atalanta in Calydon”

Their poetry focused on emotion, atmosphere, female beauty, spiritual themes, and altered states of mind. Like the Romantics, they valued feeling over reason, and beauty was very important in their work. However, they avoided the political themes common in Victorian art and literature. Instead, they focused on personal emotion, nature, and medieval subjects.

Raphael’s art stood for perfection, harmony, and beauty—but the Pre-Raphaelites felt it lacked emotional depth and truth. They opposed his influence because they believed it led artists away from sincerity and real-life experiences. Instead, they turned to early Renaissance painters who were honest, spiritual, and full of feeling.

Through both their paintings and poetry, the Pre-Raphaelites tried to bring back a world of moral beauty, emotional truth, and fine detail—a world where art touched both the eyes and the heart. Though the original Brotherhood lasted only about five years, their ideas influenced later movements in both art and literature, and they are remembered today as reformers who brought honesty, emotion, and beauty back into art.