Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Art of the Pre-Raphaelites by Art of the Pre-Raphaelites, The. In 1848, seven inexperienced young artists banded together to form the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, one of the first and most distinctive group movements in modern art. A century and a half later, their art still has the power to shock, as well as fascinate its audiences. Through the detailed analysis of the materials, techniques, and working pratices of the artists, this lavishly illustrated book examines how Pre-Raphaelite pictures compel the viewer to see more, and more vividly, than traditional painting styles. This intensity of observation reinforces the distinctive subject matter of the pictures: the natural world and the human model, gender identities and sexual relationships, debates on politics, science and religion. Elizabeth Prettejohn is widely acknowledged to be a leading authority on the Pre-Raphaelites, and "The Art of the Pre-Raphaelites" is seen as a classic introduction to the movement. Outstandingly successful as a hardback, it is now published in a new, affordable format by public demand. "synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title. Highly recommended. --Library Journal. Comprehensively illustrated, clearly written and introduces the reader to many invigorating new ideas. --Times Literary Supplement. This book goes a long way in offering some fresh visions of a favourite subject. --Susan P. Casteras, Pre-Raphaelite Studies. About the Author : Elizabeth Prettejohn is Professor of History of Art at the University of Bristol. She is the author of (1997), editor of After the Pre-Raphaelites: Art and Aestheticism in Victorian England (1999), and author of Beauty and Art 1750-2000 (2005). Professor Liz Prettejohn Head of Department Professor of History of Art. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Liz studied American art and architecture at Harvard University, before moving to London to study British and French art at the Courtauld Institute. She has worked as Curator of Paintings and Sculpture at Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery and held chairs at the Universities of Plymouth and Bristol. Liz joined the York department in 2012 and served as Head of Department until 2016. Liz is an active guest curator and has co-curated exhibitions on Lawrence Alma-Tadema, , and . In 2011 she gave the Paul Mellon Lectures at the National Gallery, London, on ‘The National Gallery and the English Renaissance of Art’. Departmental roles. Head of Department (2012-16, 2020-present) Senior Management Team Research Committee Teaching Committee Graduate Studies Committee. Research. Overview. Receptions of ancient, medieval, and Renaissance art and sculpture The Pre-Raphaelites Victorian Aestheticism Art Criticism (particularly Water Pater, Roger Fry) Relationships between philosophical aesthetics and art practice. Liz’s research early in her career was motivated by curiosity about the low status of British (especially Victorian) art in academic art history. Her books on the Pre-Raphaelites and the Aesthetic Movement assessed the achievements of Victorian artists and placed them in relation to European Modernism. Her on the critical fortunes of Victorian art has led to a more general interest in taste and aesthetics, explored in her books Beauty and Art 1750-2000 (2005) and The Modernity of Ancient Sculpture: Greek Sculpture and Modern Art from Winckelmann to Picasso (2012). Her book Modern Painters, Old Masters: The Art of Imitation from the Pre-Raphaelites to the First World War (2017) argues that Victorian artists were, paradoxically, at their most original when they imitated the Old Masters most faithfully. Projects. Liz is working on a new project provisionally entitled Revaluations: The Story of British Art from the Death of Rossetti to the Stock Market Crash . This will make use of the recent dramatic increase in availability of digital images of works of art to examine a much wider range of artistic production, from the years 1880-1930, than the current scholarly literature acknowledges. It will ask how the consideration of this wider range of work can change our understanding of international modernism in this period, and of its relations both to the art of the past and to the art of more recent periods. Research group(s) Grants. Leverhulme Trust International Network Grant for Enchanted Modernities: Theosophy, Modernism and the Arts, c.1875-1960. Supervision. Liz’s current and recent PhD supervisions include the following research areas: Aesthetic Interiors Costume in the Productions of Herbert Beerbohm Tree Mirrors in Victorian Painting Darwin and Beauty The Classical Nude in Romantic Britain Country House Collections: Tyntesfield and Dartington Lawrence Alma-Tadema Murray Marks: Dealing in Chinese Porcelain and Renaissance Bronzes and Victorian Illustration John Singer Sargent Graham Sutherland The Contemporary Art Society The 'Generation of 1863' as transnational network Abraham Solomon William Etty Representations of Witchcraft, Spiritualism, and the Dark Arts in Victorian Britain The Caryatid in Nineteenth-Century Britain Artists on Capri Nineteenth Century Female Sculptors Interwar British Art and the Apocalypse German Traveller-Artists in Chile Leighton’s Landscapes The Influence of British Art on Bohemia 1848-1914 The New Gallery 1888-1910 Edward Burne-Jones Ancient Erotic Art in Nineteenth-Century Museums Faith and Fantasy in Late-Nineteenth Century English Art and Literature Art Patronage in Victorian Britain Ambrose McEvoy Frances Hodgkins and Cedric Morris Representations of Battle and Conflict in Victorian Art Music as Ideal Art Flowers in the Art of Dante Gabriel Rossetti The Artistic Legacy of Elizabeth Eleanor Siddal. Publications. Selected publications. Books. Modern Painters, Old Masters: The Art of Imitation from the Pre-Raphaelites to the First World War , Yale University Press, 2017 (co-edited, with Charles Martindale and Stefano Evangelista), Pater the Classicist: Classical Scholarship, Reception, and Aestheticism , Oxford University Press, 2017 (with Peter Trippi and others), Lawrence Alma-Tadema: At Home in Antiquity , exhibition catalogue, Prestel, 2016 The Modernity of Ancient Sculpture: Greek Sculpture and Modern Art from Winckelmann to Picasso , I.B. Tauris (New Directions in Classics), 2012 The Cambridge Companion to the Pre-Raphaelites (editor),Cambridge University Press, 2012 Art for Art’s Sake: Aestheticism in Victorian Painting , Yale University Press, 2007, Winner of the 2008 Historians of British Art Book Award in the Single-Author, Post-1800 category. Beauty and Art 1750-2000 , Oxford History of Art series, Oxford University Press, 2005 The Art of the Pre-Raphaelites , Tate Publishing and Princeton University Press, 2000; paperback edition 2007 After the Pre-Raphaelites: Art and Aestheticism in Victorian England (editor) , Manchester Univeristy Press and Rutgers University Press, 1999 : Antiquity, Renaissance, Modernity (co-editor, with Tim Barringer), Yale University Press, 1999 Interpreting Sargent , Tate Publishing, 1998 Rossetti and his Circle , Tate Publishing, 1997. Recent articles. ' and History Painting', Visual Culture in Britain 15, 2014, pp. 239-257 ‘Twenty-first Century Millais’, Victorian Literature and Culture 37, 2009, pp. 287-91 ‘Solomon, Swinburne, Sappho’, Victorian Review 34, Fall 2008, pp. 103-28 ‘Art Writing Now’ (review article on T.J. Clark, The Sight of Death , and Peter de Bolla, Art Matters ), Art History 30, November 2007, pp. 769-77 ‘From Aestheticism to Modernism, and Back Again’, 19: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Long Nineteenth Century, issue 2, May 2006 ‘Lawrence Alma-Tadema and the Modern City of Ancient Rome’, Art Bulletin LXXXIV, March 2002, pp. 115-29. Contributions to Exhibitions and Exhibition Catalogues (selected) ‘Leighton’s Last Academy’, in Flaming June: The Making of an Icon , , London, 2016 ‘Botticelli and the Pre- Raphaelites’, in Botticelli Reimagined , London: Victoria and Albert Museum and Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, 2015- ‘La question de la peinture d’histoire en Grande-Bretagne’ in L’Invention du Passé: Histoires de coeur et d’épée en Europe, 1802-1850 , Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, 2014 ‘In Dialogue with Antiquity: Alma-Tadema’s Studio Houses’, in In the Temple of the Self: The Artist’s Residence as a Total Work of Art: Europe and America 1800-1948 , Museum Villa Stuck, Munich, 2013 ‘The Pre-Raphaelite Legacy’, in Tim Barringer, Jason Rosenfeld, and Alison Smith (eds), Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde , Tate Britain, The National Gallery of Art, Washington, and the Pushkin Museum, Moscow, 2012-13 ‘Aestheticism in Painting’ and ‘Late Paintings’ in The Cult of Beauty: The Aesthetic Movement in Britain , Victoria and Albert Museum, April-July 2011, pp. 64-83, 238-41 ‘Introduction: Life, Legend and Landscape: A Miscellany’, in Joanna Selborne (ed.), Life, Legend, Landscape: Victorian Drawings and Watercolours , The Courtauld Gallery, London, 2011, pp. 8-16 ‘Lawrence Alma-Tadema: Phidias showing the frieze of the Parthenon to his friends’, in Penelope Curtis, On the Meanings of Sculpture in Painting , Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, 2009-10, pp. 106-8 ‘Frederic Leightons Klassizismus’, in Margot Th. Brandlhuber and Michael Buhrs (eds), Frederic Lord Leighton 1830-1896: Maler und Bildhauer der viktorianischen Zeit , Museum Villa Stuck, Munich, 2009, pp. 32-77 ‘Pre-Raphaelite Beauty’, in Mikael Ahlund (ed.), The Pre- Raphaelites , Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2009, pp. 53-65 Solomon’s Classicism’, in Colin Cruise and others, Love Revealed: Simeon Solomon and the Pre-Raphaelites , Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery, Museum Villa Stuck, Munich, and Ben Uri Gallery, The London Jewish Museum of Art, 2005-06 ‘Images of the Past in Victorian Painting’, in Angus Trumble (ed.), Love and Death: Art in the Age of Queen Victoria , Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2001, pp. 85-91 ‘Out of the Nineteenth Century: Roger Fry’s Early Art Criticism, 1900-06’, in Christopher Green (ed.), Art Made Modern: Roger Fry’s Vision of Art , The Courtauld Gallery, London, 1999, pp. 31-44 ‘La Real Academia Victoriana: Mercado moderno e institución tradicional’, in La era Victoriana: un siglo de pintura Británica , Museo Nacional de San Carlos, Mexico City, 1997, pp. 42-52 ‘Checklist of Samuel Courtauld’s Acquisitions of Modern French Painitngs’ and ‘Modern Foreign Paintings and the National Art Collections: Anthology of British Texts, 1905-32’, in John House, Impressionism for England: Samuel Courtauld as Patron and Collector , Courtauld Institute Galleries, London, 1994, pp. 221-52. Other publications (selected) 'Seeing and Making Art in Rome: Carel Vosmaer's The Amazon ', in Timothy Saunders and others (eds), Romans and Romantics , Oxford University Press (Classical Presences series), 2012 ‘Medea, Frederick Sandys, and the Aesthetic Moment’, in Heike Bartel and Anne Simon (eds), Unbinding Medea: Interdisciplinary Approaches to a Classical Myth from Antiquity to the 21 st Century , Legenda, 2010, pp. 95-112 ‘Art’, in Francis O’Gorman (ed.), The Cambridge Companion to Victorian Culture , Cambridge University Press, 2010, pp. 195-218 ‘Reception and Ancient Art: The Case of the Venus de Milo’, in Charles Martindale and Richard Thomas (eds), Classics and the Uses of Reception , Blackwell, 2006, pp. 227-49 ‘The Pre-Raphaelite Model’, in Jane Desmarais, Martin Postle, and William Vaughan (eds), Model and Supermodel: The Artist’s Model in British Art and Culture , Manchester University Press, 2006, pp. 26-46 ‘Between Homer and Ovid: Metamorphoses of the “Grand Style” in G.F. Watts’, in Colin Trodd and Stephanie Brown (eds), Representations of G.F. Watts: Art Making in Victorian Culture , Ashgate, 2004, pp. 49-64 ‘The Modernism of Frederic Leighton’, in David Peters Corbett and Lara Perry (eds), English Art 1860-1914: Modern Artists and Identity , Manchester University Press, 2000, pp. 33-52 ‘Leighton: The Aesthete as Academic’, in Rafael Cardoso Denis and Colin Trodd (eds), Art and the Academy in the Nineteenth Century , Manchester University Press, 2000, pp. 33-52 ‘ “The monstrous diversion of a show of gladiators”: Simeon Solomon’s Habet! ’, in Catharine Edwards (ed.), Roman Presences: Receptions of Rome in European Culture, 1789-1945 , Cambridge University Press, 1999, pp. 157-72 ‘Undermining the Archive’ (review article on Dianne Sachko Macleod’s Art and the Victorian Middle Class ), Art History 20, December 1997, pp. 616-22 ‘Aesthetic Value and the Professionalization of Victorian Art Criticism 1837-78’, Journal of Victorian Culture 2.1, Spring 1997, pp. 71-94 ‘Locked in the Myth’ (review article on Tate Gallery exhibition and other publications on James McNeill Whistler), Art History 19, June 1996, pp. 301-7 ‘Morality vs. aesthetics in critical interpretations of Frederic Leighton, 1855-1875’, Burlington Magazine CXXXVIII, February 1996, pp. 79-86. External activities. Editorial duties. 2018-ongoing: Publications Committee, The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art 2006-13: Editorial Board, Art History 2001-08: Editorial Board, Journal of Victorian Culture; 2008- (ongoing) Editorial Consultant. Professional Service. 2015-ongoing: Committee for Society, Arts and Letters, British School at Athens 2008-14: Tate Britain Council and Tate Collections Committee 2007-12: Advisory Council, The Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art 2005-10: Advisory Board, Cambridge Victorian Studies Group (Leverhulme Trust five-year project: 'Past versus Present in Victorian Britain: Abandoning the Past in an Age of Progress') Curated Exhibitions and Exhibition Catalogues. Alma-Tadema: Klassieke Verleiding / Lawrence Alma-Tadema: At Home in Antiquity , Fries Museum, Leeuwarden; Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna; Leighton House Museum, London, 2016-17: guest co-curator with Peter Trippi and Ivo Blom (exhibition concept awarded Turing Toekenning I, 2015; finalist for the 2017 Global Fine Art Awards: Best Impressionist and Modern (1838-WWII) Solo Artist Exhibition J. W. Waterhouse (1849-1917): The Modern Pre-Raphaelite , Groninger Museum, the Netherlands; Royal Academy of Arts, London; Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; co-curated with Peter Trippi, Robert Upstone, and Patty Wageman, 2008-10 Dante Gabriel Rossetti , Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, and Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, co-curated with Julian Treuherz and Edwin Becker, 2003-04 Adrian Stokes , Arnolfini, Bristol, June 2002 Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema , Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, and Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool, co-curated with Edwin Becker and others, 1996-97 Imagining Rome: British Artists and Rome in the Nineteenth Century , Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery, co-curated with Michael Liversidge, 1996 Characters and Conversations: British Art 1900-1930 , Tate Gallery Liverpool, co-curated with Fiona Bradley, 1996- 97. Invited talks and conferences. Conference organisation (selected) ISBN 13: 9780691070575. Though always controversial in art circles, the Pre-Raphaelites have also always been extremely popular with museum goers. This accessible new study provides the most comprehensive view of the movement to date. It shows us why, a century and a half later, Pre-Raphaelite art retains its power to fascinate, haunt, and often shock its viewers. Calling themselves the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, , and produced a statement of ideas that revolutionized art practice in Victorian England. Critical of the Royal Academy's formulaic works, these painters believed that painting had been misdirected since Raphael. They and the artists who joined with them, including , , and Frederick George Stephens, created bright works representing nature and literary themes in fresh detail and color. Considered heretical by many and frequently admonished for a lack of grace in composition the group disbanded after only a few years. Yet its artists and ideals remained influential; its works, greatly admired. In this richly illustrated book, Elizabeth Prettejohn raises new and provocative questions about the group's social and artistic identity. Was it the first avant-garde movement in modern art? What role did women play in the Pre-Raphaelite fraternity? How did relationships between the artists and models affect the paintings? The author also analyzes technique, pinning down the distinctive characteristics of these painters and evaluating the degree to which a group style existed. And she considers how Pre-Raphaelite art responded to and commented on its time and place a world characterized by religious and political controversy, new scientific concern for precise observation, the emergence of psychology, and changing attitudes toward sexuality and women. The first major publication on the Pre-Raphaelite movement in more than fifteen years, this exquisite volume incorporates the swell of recent research into a comprehensive, up-to-date survey. It comprises well over two hundred color reproductions, including works that are immediately recognizable as Pre-Raphaelite masterpieces, as well as lesser-known paintings that expand our appreciation of this significant artistic departure. "synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title. Elizabeth Prettejohn lectures at the University of Plymouth and is the author of several books on nineteenth-century art, including Rossetti and his Circle and Interpreting Sargent. "A valuable study that will appeal to art historians and those familiar with this seminal movement in English art. The 200 illustrations (many in detail) are all in excellent color." ( Choice ) "Prettejohn has not only brought together so many of this time period's masterpieces, but has also provided the history and means with which to realize the full impact of these paintings. . . . If reading about art doesn't sound too exhilarating, this book will spark interest just from a momentary view of the enchanting paintings inside." ---Felice Ballester, Bloomsbury Review. "Comprehensively illustrated, clearly written and introduces the reader to many invigorating new ideas." ( Times Literary Supplement ) "Who were the Pre-Raphaelites, and what was their art like? Prettejohn . . . addresses these questions with sensitivity, careful attention, and scholarly expertise in this gorgeous book . . . The author argues that Pre-Raphaelite art requires long, close scrutiny. Her book equally merits lingering and absorbing attention." ---Karen McCarthy, ForeWord. "[Prettejohn] suggests a new story about the development of modern art, from Pre-Raphaelitism to symbolism to surrealism to pop art to postmodernism. If that doesn't piqu art book reader's interest, perhaps. . . the luscious reproductions of virtually all the famous and many lesser known but entrancing Pre-Raphaelite masterpieces will." ( Booklist ) "Prettejohn's study is well-written, her research and knowledge of the period are commendable, and many of her arguments have merit and originality. . . This book goes a long way in offering some fresh visions of a favorite subject." ---Susan P. Casteras, Pre-Raphaelite Studies. "The first combined study of these artists to appear in 15 years. There have been [other] books . . . but not the combined, thoroughgoing overview of their lives, thoughts, and, most of all, techniques that Prettejohn accomplishes here . . . Highly recommended." ( Library Journal ) "About this title" may belong to another edition of this title. Shipping: FREE Within U.S.A. Other Popular Editions of the Same Title. Featured Edition. ISBN 10: 1854377264 ISBN 13: 9781854377265 Publisher: Tate Gallery, 2007 Softcover. Gardne. 2000 Hardcover. Customers who bought this item also bought. Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace. 1. The Art of the Pre-Raphaelites. Book Description Hardcover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9780691070575. 2. The Art of the Pre-Raphaelites. Book Description Condition: new. Seller Inventory # think0691070571. 3. The Art of the Pre-Raphaelites. Book Description Hardcover. Condition: new. Seller Inventory # 9780691070575. 4. The Art of the Pre-Raphaelites (Hardback) Book Description Hardback. Condition: New. Language: English. Brand new Book. Though always controversial in art circles, the Pre- Raphaelites have also always been extremely popular with museum goers. This accessible new study provides the most comprehensive view of the movement to date. It shows us why, a century and a half later, Pre-Raphaelite art retains its power to fascinate, haunt, and often shock its viewers. Calling themselves the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, and William Holman Hunt produced a statement of ideas that revolutionized art practice in Victorian England. Critical of the Royal Academy's formulaic works, these painters believed that painting had been misdirected since Raphael. They and the artists who joined with them, including William Michael Rossetti, James Collinson, and Frederick George Stephens, created bright works representing nature and literary themes in fresh detail and color. Considered heretical by many and frequently admonished for a lack of grace in composition the group disbanded after only a few years. Yet its artists and ideals remained influential; its works, greatly admired.In this richly illustrated book, Elizabeth Prettejohn raises new and provocative questions about the group's social and artistic identity. Was it the first avant-garde movement in modern art? What role did women play in the Pre-Raphaelite fraternity? How did relationships between the artists and models affect the paintings? The author also analyzes technique, pinning down the distinctive characteristics of these painters and evaluating the degree to which a group style existed. And she considers how Pre-Raphaelite art responded to and commented on its time and place a world characterized by religious and political controversy, new scientific concern for precise observation, the emergence of psychology, and changing attitudes toward sexuality and women. The first major publication on the Pre-Raphaelite movement in more than fifteen years, this exquisite volume incorporates the swell of recent research into a comprehensive, up-to-date survey. It comprises well over two hundred color reproductions, including works that are immediately recognizable as Pre-Raphaelite masterpieces, as well as lesser-known paintings that expand our appreciation of this significant artistic departure. Seller Inventory # BZE9780691070575. 5. The Art of the Pre-Raphaelites. Book Description Condition: New. A+ Customer service! Satisfaction Guaranteed! Book is in NEW condition. Seller Inventory # 0691070571- 2-1. 6. The Art of the Pre-Raphaelites [Hardcover] Prettejohn, Elizabeth. Book Description Condition: New. New. Seller Inventory # Q-0691070571. The Pre-Raphaelites. The Pre-Raphaelites opposed the dominance of the British Royal Academy, which championed a narrow range of idealized or moral subjects and conventional definitions of beauty drawn from the early Italian Renaissance and Classical art. In contrast, the Pre-Raphaelites took inspiration from an earlier (pre-Raphaelite - before the artist Raphael) period, that is, the centuries preceding the High Renaissance. They believed painters before the Renaissance provided a model for depicting nature and the human body realistically, rather than idealistically, and that collective guilds of medieval craftspeople offered an alternative vision of artistic community to mid-19 th -century academic approaches. Key Ideas & Accomplishments. The Pre-Raphaelites rejected not only the British Royal Academy's preference for Victorian subjects and styles, but also its teaching methods. They believed that rote learning had replaced truth and experience. Theirs was one of the first major challenges to "official" art, and their early "institutional critique" is a crucial piece of the history of modern art in Britain. Above all, Pre-Raphaelitism espoused Naturalism: the detailed study of nature by the artist and fidelity to its appearance, even when this risked showing ugliness. It also named a preference for natural forms as the basis for patterns and decoration that offered an antidote to the industrial designs of the machine age. As part of their reaction to the negative impact of industrialization, Pre-Raphaelites turned to the medieval period as a stylistic model and as an ideal for the synthesis of art and life in the applied arts. Their revival of medieval styles, stories, and methods of production greatly influenced the development of the Arts and Crafts and Art Nouveau design movements. Overview of The Pre-Raphaelites. "Beauty without the beloved is like a sword through the heart," Dante Gabriel Rossetti wrote. His emphasis upon ideal female beauty made him a maverick among the Pre-Raphaelites. Key Artists. Do Not Miss. Important Art and Artists of The Pre-Raphaelites. The Girlhood of Mary Virgin (1848-49) This painting by Rossetti was the first Pre-Raphaelite work to appear in public. It featured the secretive initials "PRB," indicating that the artist was a member of the newly established Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. In the painting, the Virgin Mary appears at home with her mother, St. Anne, and an angel, while her father tends the garden outside the window. The style is deliberately modeled on late Medieval and early Renaissance paintings, which were highly unpopular in Victorian England at the time. The composition defies the techniques of traditional perspective, with a notable flatness between the foreground and background, which foreshadows later artists' rejections of classical ways of depicting realistic space. As art historian Jason Rosenfeld points out, "Rossetti's picture represents a revivalist style that draws on early Renaissance paintings from Northern Europe and Italy, blended with a comprehensive religious symbolism expressed in a profusion of clearly observed details and natural forms, such as the lilies redolent of the Virgin Mary's purity and the lamp evoking piety." Rossetti adds another touch of realism by portraying the likenesses of his mother and sister as Mary and Saint Anne; at the time this was considered blasphemous given the standard dependence on classical models for the Holy Family. Rossetti's daring combined with his Medievalist style was highly controversial and drew attention to the limits of the "Grand Manner" that was still celebrated in the British Academy. In effect, Rossetti was proposing a radical alternative way to represent even the most sacred of subjects. ! (The Annunciation) (1849-50) Rossetti's painting of the Annunciation is still mystifying viewers in the 21st century. The angel Gabriel's announcement to the Virgin Mary of her impending miraculous pregnancy is one of the most familiar and popular subjects in religious art, but Rossetti's interpretation of the moment is utterly singular and was criticized for its realism when it was first exhibited. Taking his inspiration from early Italian frescoes, like those by the monk Fra Angelico, Rossetti chose a simplified palette and composition. But within these self-imposed boundaries, and despite the inclusion of many recognizable symbols of the Virgin (the lilies, etc.), the scene departs totally from traditional depictions. The artist used his sister as a model for the Virgin, highlighting her red hair and the innocent, fragile state of a young woman just awakening from sleep. Since the Renaissance the Annunciation had been used as an example for women's piety and virginity, but the modern expression on Rossetti's Virgin's face and her posture seem disturbed and mysterious and are difficult to interpret as pious. This uncertainty introduced into a sacred scene is typical of Rossetti, and it is above all his Naturalism that allows the viewer to experience such a profound connection to the humanity of the normally idealized Virgin. The Art of the Pre-Raphaelites - by Elizabeth Prettejohn (Hardcover) This first major publication about the Pre-Raphaelite movement in more than 15 years incorporates the swell of recent research into a comprehensive, up-to-date survey and comprises over 200 color reproductions, including masterpieces and lesser-known paintings that expand our appreciation of this significant artistic departure. 20 halftones. Book Synopsis. Though always controversial in art circles, the Pre-Raphaelites have also always been extremely popular with museum goers. This accessible new study provides the most comprehensive view of the movement to date. It shows us why, a century and a half later, Pre-Raphaelite art retains its power to fascinate, haunt, and often shock its viewers. Calling themselves the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, and William Holman Hunt produced a statement of ideas that revolutionized art practice in Victorian England. Critical of the Royal Academy's formulaic works, these painters believed that painting had been misdirected since Raphael. They and the artists who joined with them, including William Michael Rossetti, James Collinson, and Frederick George Stephens, created bright works representing nature and literary themes in fresh detail and color. Considered heretical by many and frequently admonished for a lack of grace in composition the group disbanded after only a few years. Yet its artists and ideals remained influential; its works, greatly admired. In this richly illustrated book, Elizabeth Prettejohn raises new and provocative questions about the group's social and artistic identity. Was it the first avant-garde movement in modern art? What role did women play in the Pre-Raphaelite fraternity? How did relationships between the artists and models affect the paintings? The author also analyzes technique, pinning down the distinctive characteristics of these painters and evaluating the degree to which a group style existed. And she considers how Pre-Raphaelite art responded to and commented on its time and place a world characterized by religious and political controversy, new scientific concern for precise observation, the emergence of psychology, and changing attitudes toward sexuality and women. The first major publication on the Pre-Raphaelite movement in more than fifteen years, this exquisite volume incorporates the swell of recent research into a comprehensive, up-to-date survey. It comprises well over two hundred color reproductions, including works that are immediately recognizable as Pre-Raphaelite masterpieces, as well as lesser-known paintings that expand our appreciation of this significant artistic departure. Review Quotes. Prettejohn has not only brought together so many of this time period's masterpieces, but has also provided the history and means with which to realize the full impact of these paintings. . . . If reading about art doesn't sound too exhilarating, this book will spark interest just from a momentary view of the enchanting paintings inside. ---Felice Ballester, Bloomsbury Review. Prettejohn's study is well-written, her research and knowledge of the period are commendable, and many of her arguments have merit and originality. . . This book goes a long way in offering some fresh visions of a favorite subject. ---Susan P. Casteras, Pre-Raphaelite Studies. Who were the Pre-Raphaelites, and what was their art like? Prettejohn . . . addresses these questions with sensitivity, careful attention, and scholarly expertise in this gorgeous book . . . The author argues that Pre-Raphaelite art requires long, close scrutiny. Her book equally merits lingering and absorbing attention. ---Karen McCarthy, ForeWord. [Prettejohn] suggests a new story about the development of modern art, from Pre-Raphaelitism to symbolism to surrealism to pop art to postmodernism. If that doesn't piqu art book reader's interest, perhaps. . . the luscious reproductions of virtually all the famous and many lesser known but entrancing Pre-Raphaelite masterpieces will.-- "Booklist" A valuable study that will appeal to art historians and those familiar with this seminal movement in English art. The 200 illustrations (many in detail) are all in excellent color.-- "Choice" Comprehensively illustrated, clearly written and introduces the reader to many invigorating new ideas.-- "Times Literary Supplement" The first combined study of these artists to appear in 15 years. There have been [other] books . . . but not the combined, thoroughgoing overview of their lives, thoughts, and, most of all, techniques that Prettejohn accomplishes here . . . Highly recommended.-- "Library Journal" About the Author. Elizabeth Prettejohn lectures at the University of Plymouth and is the author of several books on nineteenth-century art, including Rossetti and his Circle and Interpreting Sargent.