The pre-Raphaelites (Part III) :

Measure of emotional security

Gwen Herat

ART: Directing increasingly their creative vision upon poetry and symbolism, the Pre-Raphaelites obtained a measure of emotional security without weakening the character of their work. They never refrained from displaying the ugliness and its danger and drew upon it the implicity of character to re-interpret the themes of medieval romance and religion.

In all aspects, their art was a protest against the existence entrenched in majority of great names who preceded them but were able to draw what they thought was in keeping with their era.

Victorian elegance adorned many of their paintings. However, Pre-Rapahelite art appeared to be the outcome of over-emphatic expression. The levels of passion and piety, the exposure which was painful rather than appealing to the sensitive art lover, never hesitated their brushwork or even pay attention, had adverse effect on their finished work when displayed.

For example, Holman Hunt's Shadow of the Cross or Millais's Prescribed royalist had shortcomings which discretion, left unnoticed. They were Pardonable in the eyes of art critics since the same disturbed stream of feelings were found to be with most of these painters.

Yet, they were considered the impulse behind Pre-Rephaelites's greatest achievements. (rubbish, I would say).

There was the quality and rarity, less open to dispute which made some the greatest pieces of art in the world. Today, what is best in painting may not belong to the Pre-Raphaelites but facts remain that their art as the effective aesthetic vehicle and awkward constrain arising from them, lay in the region virulent colour and figures which is the trademark of these artists.

Sadly, the agitated creative spirit which at the beginning seemed to fuse emotions of the Brotherhood rapidly extinguished because its intense to be sustained for a long-time, became weak to resist the pressure of society. This weakness could have changed to resilience had the pressure been less diluted.

In 1853, the Brotherhood was already dissolving and as this decade came to a stop, genuine manifestation in art was experienced. As technical brilliance surfaced, painters like Millais renounced the less rewarding enthusiasm of youth as was seen in Autmn Leaves, painted in 1856. This was his last painting in which the ardour of poetic feeling was clearly revealed.

Homan Hunt had virtually relapsed into a laboured religiosity while Rossetti's posthumous portrait of his wife, Beata Beatrix in 1863 fired his main artistic achievement but it was more amply conceived and academically painted than his earlier work.

By this time a record decline of the painter was felt but the conspicuous painter members of the Brotherhood was slipping by. Though its transience was ascribed to the original lack of faculty, the case of James Collision Frederick Stephens whose adherents were secured chiefly to raise the membership to seven sensibly effected the inspiration and produced vividly pre-Raphaelite work and talents that were unequal.

The art of Burne-jones reproduced the grace of twinkling twilight that attracted William Morris. He was of sanguine view of the beauty and felicity of past epochs. His first paintings were faithful echoes of Rossetti's evocation of Romance enflamed by the desire to improve. Burne-Jones was born in Birmigham in 1833 and died in 1898 at Fulham.

Edward Burne-JonesAn academic among the Pre-Raphaelites, Edward Burne-Jones was intended for the Church but realised it was not to be so. He entered Exeter College, Oxford in 1852 where he met william Morros. With others who were interested in art and along with poet R. W. Dixon banded together to publish the Oxford and Cambridge Magazine in which some of Morris's early writings as well as contributions by Rossetti appeared.

Burne-Jones was much impressed by some of the paintings of Rossetti in 1855 that were in Combe's collection in Oxford which left a deep impression in him. Towards the end of this same year, Burne-Jones happen to meet Rossitti who persuaded him to leave the university and take up to painting. He received some early lessons from Rossetti and was allowed to watch Rossetti at work.

Otherwise, he was self-taught. His early work had a strong semblance of Rossetti's art which had a strong influence on him. By 1859 to 1862, he visited Italy. Italian paintings had a great influence especially from the 15th century masters that are reflected on his paintings. He was overwhelmed by Botticelli and Mantegna.

The Arming of Perseus hangs to the Southapton Civic Centre. This tempera on canvas is 60 x 84, is one of his major exhibits. This painting is a sequel to the one titled, The Call of Perseus which hangs in the same centre. AUROA is yet another brilliant painting done in oil on canvas, 70 1/2 x 30 and in the collection of the late Lady Desborough.

James Collinson Was a member of the Pre-Raphaelites Brotherhood on the advice and persuasion of Rossetti. Collinson was a convert to Roman Catholicism and when he met and fell in love with Christina Rossetti who was a devout Anglican, she refused to marry him. He reverted back to his former faith.

This had such an impact on his emotions, he resigned from the PRB. He remained with them for four years until a band of Jesuits found him fit for painting and during all this time, he never renewed his friendship with the Rossettis but continued to paint insipid genre art until his death.

But everyone was of opinion that there would have been some brilliant qualities in him for Christina Rossetti to have been attracted to him. To outsiders, he appeared timid, of modest demeanour, retiring and would laugh only in a lachrymose manner.

James Collinson was born in 1825 a Mansfield. He also died at Mansfield in 1881. A brilliant artist who rendered proper Pre-Raphalite fidelity to truth to the last detail, he painted many masterpieces and among them the spectacular one was The Renunciation of Queen Elizabeth of Hungary.

This hangs in the Johannesburg Art Gallery and was exhibited in 1851 at the National Exhibition. Oil on canvas, it measures. Collinson was touched by the story of Elizabeth renouncing her rank and got herself received into the Monastery of Kizingen where she died. Later, she was canonized into sainthood.

John Brett, A. R. A. John Brett was born in 1830 at Bletchingly and died in 1902 at Putney. One of the very few painters who disastrously was influenced by Ruskin and failed to realise the damage it had done to his career in the early stages.

But coming under the state of the PRB, he took a turn to the better, especially when he painted Mrs Coventry Patmore at the R. A. in 1856 and in 1857 he represented the Pre-Raphalite Exhibition in Russel Place. After an illustrous career he became a Fellow of the Royal Astronomic Society and showed himself a true deciple of Ruskin.

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