Aug 10, 2006

the Pre-Raphaelites and their Brotherhood

About 100 things to know about the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB):
  1. Formed in 1848 during the Victorian Age
  2. Original members included Dante Gabriel Rossetti, William Rossetti, William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, John Collinson, Thomas Woolner, F.G. Stephens
  3. 2nd 'flowering' of PRB included William Morris and Edward Burne-Jones
  4. PRB loved the Arthurian Legend
  5. Charles Swinburne wrote "beautiful poems that no polite person could talk about."
  6. "Vicisti, Galilaee" means "Thou Hast Conquered, Galilaee"
  7. William Holman Hunt painted a woman in a room with a loom coming apart around her titled Lady of Shalott
  8. Tennyson, Keats, and Malory influenced the PRB greatly
  9. John Ruskin wrote a book titled Modern Painters, in which he discusses various artists. He later wrote Modern Painters II, in which he discusses the PRB
  10. Jane Burden married William Morris and served as the model for Pandora
  11. Swinburne would have most likely died prematurely had it not been for the efforts of Theodore Watts-Dunton
  12. Prometheus gave fire to man in Greek mythology
  13. Swinburne and Pater were associated with the Aesthetic Movement
  14. "Willowwood" is part of a larger work called "House of Life" by D.G. Rossetti
  15. There are two type of sonnets - Italian (Petrarchan) and English (Shakespearean)
  16. Josephine Butler is credited as being instrumental in the repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts
  17. "Poeta Loquitur" means "The Poet Speaks" and was written by Swinburne
  18. Waterhouse painted Lady of Shalott which features a boat on the water with a woman sitting in it
  19. "Ave Atque Vale" means "Hail and Farewell" (Believe me, you'll need to know this!)
  20. "Ave Atque Vale" is an elegy to Charles Baudelaire (who translated Poe into French) by Swinburne
  21. William Holman Hunt painted a woman rising from a reclined man's lap, called Awakening Conscious
  22. P. Henderson was a critic and biographer of Swinburne
  23. Lethe is the river of forgetfulness or oblivion
  24. Elizabeth Siddal was often cast as Beatrice and she also produced "Self Portrait" and the poem "Worn Out," among others. She was D.G. Rossetti's wife. She also served as the model for the painting Ophelia.
  25. The Germ was the title of the short-lived magazine produced by the PRB
  26. Robert Buchanan wrote a scathing critique about the PRB titled "The Fleshly School of Poetry"
  27. Sophie Anderson was a French painter who had been influenced by the PRB
  28. Euphemia Gray (called Effie) was married to John Ruskin but eventually separated and married John Millais, Ruskin's best friend
  29. Swinburne makes reference to "Mademoiselle du Maupin" in his work called "Sonnet"
  30. The Sangreal is another name for the Holy Grail
  31. The Contagious Diseases Acts were repealed in the 1880's
  32. Florence Nightingale, Harriet Martineaux, and Josephine Butler were three women who spoke out against the Contagious Diseases Acts
  33. William Morris wrote an essay titled "How I Became a Socialist"
  34. Sir Joshua Reynolds (referred to as "Sir Sloshua" by PRB) was president of the Royal Academy at the time the PRB reject the Academy's teachings
  35. Procne and Philomela are represented in Swinburne's "Itylus" as a swallow and a nightingale
  36. Godmar and Jehane are characters in Morris' "Haystack in the Floods"
  37. Millais painted Christ in the House of His Parents, a controversial depiction of Christ as a poor carpenter boy (WASN'T HE!?)
  38. Jane Burden posed for D.G. Rossetti's painting Proserpine in which she holds a piece of fruit with a bite taken out
  39. The Marquis De Sade (Sadism) was imprisoned for his pornography and had a great influence on Swinburne
  40. D.G. Rossetti was obsessed with the Dante/Beatrice tale (as in Dante's Inferno)
  41. George Meredith served as the model for the painting Death of Chatterton
  42. Lord Layton was a president of the Royal Academy and influenced Waterhouse
  43. The traditional sonnet has 14 lines
  44. The Contagious Diseases Acts were passed in 1860's
  45. Christina Rossetti referred to Elizabeth Barrett Browning as the "Great poetess of our own day"
  46. "Triumph of Time" alludes to Shelley's "Triumph of Life"
  47. William Morris founded the Kelmscott Press, most noted for its publications of Chaucer
  48. Theophile Gautier wrote "Mademoiselle du Maupin"
  49. "Aesthetics" means "Art for Art's Sake"
  50. John William Waterhouse is often referred to as the greatest PRB artist, although he was not associated with the PRB
  51. William Morris wrote "I Love You, but I Cannot Paint You" on the back of his painting, Guenevere. It was in reference to his wife, Jane Burden
SOME TEXT QUOTES:
  1. "He feeds upon her face...not as she is, but was when hope shone bright" - "In An Artist's Studio" by Christina Rossetti
  2. "At the door of life, gate of breath, there are worse things waiting for man than death" - Swinburne's "Triumph of Time"
  3. "So pure - so fallen! How dare to think of the first common kindred link? Yet, Jenny, till the world shall burn it seems that all things take their turn; And who shall say but for this fair tree may need, in changes that may be..." - D.G. Rossetti's "Jenny"
  4. "And she bowed herself and stooped out of the circling charm; until her bosom must have made the bar she leaned on warm" - D.G. Rossetti's "Blessed Damozel"
  5. "O lips that the live blood faints in, the leavings of racks and rods! O ghastly glories of saints, dead limbs of gibbeted gods!" - "Hymn to Proserpine" by Swinburne
  6. "The woman almost fades from view. A cipher of man's changeless sum of lust, past, present, and to come, is left. A riddle that one shrinks to challenge from the scornful Sphinx." - D.G. Rossetti's "Jenny"
  7. "We two will lie i' the shadow of that living mystic tree within whose secret growth the dove is sometimes felt to be, while every leaf that his plumes touch saith his name audibly" - D.G. Rossetti's "Blessed Damozel"
  8. "And grief shall endure not for ever, I know. As things that are not shall these things be." - Swinburne's "Triumph of Time"
  9. "Morte D'Arthur" - Thomas Malory
  10. "Her face is made her shrine. Let all men note that in all years...they that would look on her must come to me" - D.G. Rossetti's "The Portrait"
SELECTED TITLES TO KNOW (in random order):
"Garden of Proserpine" - Charles Swinburne
"Jenny" - D. G. Rossetti
"Goblin Market" - Christina Rossetti
"Hymn to Proserpine" - Swinburne
"Hertha" - Swinburne
"Sir Galahad" - William Morris
"Poeta Liquitur" - Swinburne
"The Earthly Paradise" - a sonnet sequence by William Morris
"Lady of Shalott" - Alfred, Lord Tennyson
"Haystack in the Floods" - William Morris
"Ave Atque Vale" - Swinburne
"Les Fleurs du Mal" - Charles Baudelaire
"In An Artist's Studio" - Christina Rossetti
"The Fleshly School of Poetry" - Robert Buchanan
"Modern Love" - George Meredith
"Earth and Man" - George Meredith
"The Bride's Prelude" - D.G. Rossetti
"Sister Helen" - D.G. Rossetti
"The Portrait" - D.G. Rossetti
"Blessed Damozel" - D.G. Rossetti
"Triumph of Time" - Swinburne
"Lucifer in Starlight" - George Meredith
"Atalanta in Calydon" - Swinburne
"House of Life" - a sonnet sequence by D.G. Rossetti
"Defence of Guenevere" - William Morris
"Monna Innominata" - sonnet sequence by Christina Rossetti

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