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Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (also known as the Pre-Raphaelites)
was a group of English oil painting artist, poets and critics,
founded in 1848 by John Everett Millais, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and
William Holman Hunt.
The group's intention was to reform art by rejecting what they
considered to be the mechanistic approach adopted by the Mannerist
artists who followed Raphael and Michelangelo. They believed that
the Classical poses and elegant compositions of Raphael in
particular had been a corrupting influence on academic teaching of
art. Hence the name "Pre-Raphaelite". In particular they objected
to the influence of Sir Joshua Reynolds, the founder of the English
Royal Academy of Arts. They called him 'Sir Sloshua', believing
that his broad technique was a sloppy and formulaic form of
academic Mannerism. In contrast they wanted to return to the
abundant detail, intense colours, and complex compositions of
Quattrocento Italian and Flemish art.
The Pre-Raphaelites have been considered the first avant-garde
movement in art, though they have also been denied that status,
because they continued to accept both the concepts of
history
oil painting and of 'mimesis', or imitation of nature, as central
to the purpose of art. However, the Pre-Raphaelites undoubtedly
defined themselves as a reform movement, created a distinct name
for their form of art, and published a periodical, The Germ, to
promote their ideas. Their debates were recorded in the
"Pre-Raphaelite Journal".
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