Customer Reviews

The Pre-Raphaelites (Treasures of Art)

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The Victorian era seems grand and quite British, but it also conjures up memories of gloom and severity. Victorians are thought of as gentle but determined muckrakers and romantics. This book explores the quite Neo-Classically influenced trend of the Pre-Raphaelites. Heavily influenced by the German Nazarenes in Italy, a group of seven ambitious art school friends got together and, in a few short years, had a major impact on the Era, as did their friends and fringe followers. The most famous name associated with the group is Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and there were two other leaders: William Holman Hunt, and Sir John Everett Milais. The book gives the story of their group and biogaphies of all the artists and writers involved. The art is very spiritual and spooky. It has medieval influences and lots of references to fairy tales. Shakespeare is an important influence. The biographies overwhelm the prints to me. Between 1848-1898 the Pre-Raphaelites started a revolution toward what became gothic art in the modern sense. The book has many, many great prints of everything from "Ophelia" to the strange and familiar "The Scapegoat." The poor goat is a haunting symbol of what is wrong with the Era. Oppression seems to surround him. I would love to see more prints and less history. The book is not analytical enough for me, but everybody with an interest in spiritual and spooky art should check out this large glossy pretty thing. It's pretty good.