This is a true story set against the backdrop of industrial utilitarianism. The protagonists are a group of art knights with high aspirations and a peculiar spirit of exploration. In the face of the wanton development of industrialization, full of yearning for an ideal home, they searched up and down, fought hard, and almost devoted their entire lives to compose an idealistic sad idyll. In the annals of the development of human art, as the watchmen of the spiritual home of mankind, they have left a sad and immortal title - "Pre-Raphaelite".
Dream of Change In the Victorian era of
Britain , the Industrial Revolution brought about a peaceful scene of economic development, cultural and artistic prosperity. At the same time, cities are expanding rapidly, populations are growing rapidly, the rich and the poor are polarized, and hunger, unemployment and poverty are spreading like a plague among the underprivileged. The roar of machines in the factory replaced the old manual production, but people could not find a product style suitable for the new production method. Artists dismissive of product design have assembled under the Royal Academy's gilded banner, busying themselves with spectacularly contrived "pure art" in pursuit of affordable fame in official exhibitions. The traditional handicraft industry is declining day by day, and the few remaining handicraft workshops produce exquisite and expensive luxury goods, which are only for the upper-class aristocrats who have money and leisure to play and watch; a large number of shoddy, low-quality and cheap mechanism goods flood the market and become the mainstay of the public. Daily necessities.
Witnessing the industrial and commercial system that pursues real profits and ignores people's hearts, the minds of several artistic young people who have read Ruskin's works are full of dreams of change. The 19-year-old Dante Gabriel Rossetti is a descendant of a patriotic exile from Italy, with a noble heart and an aristocratic poetic temperament. He recited poetry and learned painting, and he could speak Italian since he was a child. He was as proficient in Dante's works as he was proficient in Shelley's poetry. William Herman Hunt's father was a London city warehouse owner of Puritan descent. The 20-year-old Hunter is determined to become a painter. He is serious and sincere, and he often ponders the issues of art and religious beliefs. John Everett Millais is 18 years old, and his family is from Jersey, which was once part of France in ancient times. The talented Millais has skilled painting skills and accurate observation skills. At the age of 10, he was the youngest artistic prodigy in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts.
In 1848, the charter movement of the industrial proletarians to fight for their rights entered a period of climax, and the society was filled with the atmosphere of reform reality. After a long conversation all night, the boys formed a group whose initial attack was aimed at the artistic monopoly of the Royal Academy of Arts. They think that the tedious style of pursuing "standard beauty" at the expense of natural authenticity originated from Raphael in the Renaissance, and the art before Raphael was sincere and natural. So the group called itself the "Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood" to express its ambition for change. In August of that year, at 83 Gower Street, London, the fraternity's charter was completed. They resisted the chaotic industrial society, devoted their love to the romantic Middle Ages, and advocated art "faithful to nature". The goal they pursue is the past and the future, the reality and the dream, a vibrant new life full of artistic beauty.
The fraternity gradually expanded, and in 1850 the journal Germination was published, with each member striving to become painters and poets. Poetically inspired by Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley and Dante, friends and family dressed as mythological or historical figures are models. They created a form of painting with clear lines and bright colors, with precise and beautifully detailed depictions that embody the philosophy of "faithfulness to nature". Their poems contain a reverent and mysterious contemplation of nature, expressing a feeling of longing and nostalgia. They firmly believe that art is human nature and that everyone can engage in artistic activities, and this kindness and enthusiasm have brought more friends.
In 1850, the Pre-Raphaelites faced a furious storm. The London newspaper The Athenaeum denounced its "open confrontation with the fundamental principles of beauty," and the novelist Charles Dickens published a dissenting article in the weekly House Talk. Pre-Raphaelite activity hit a low point. At this point John Ruskin offered a helping hand. At the age of 32, Ruskin graduated from Oxford University and became famous in England for his two-volume work, Modern Painters. He denounced the evils of industry and attacked the industrial society where wealth and hunger coexist; he believed that the mechanical actions of industrial production made people lose their creative inspiration and work pleasure. He advocated a true and sincere art, proposing a society based on the Middle Ages, where people sincerely cooperate and manage together, where handmade products are highly respected, artisans and artists are integrated, and the public enjoys the joy of art. As an inspiration and supporter of Pre-Raphaelite, Ruskin published an article in The Times to defend it, and the idea of Pre-Raphaelite was spread more widely.
In 1854, the Brotherhood disintegrated as its members grew, after which the activities of the Pre-Raphaelites evolved into another form.
A different path to the same dream The Pre-
Raphaelite pursued an incomparably magnificent dream. That dream has a different interpretation in each member's heart, and it leads them to a different destination in life.
Rossetti hovers between poetry and painting, mixing dreams with life. Lizzie Siddall is a supporter of the Pre-Raphaelite. She is quiet and reserved, simple and educated, with a touch of sadness in her beauty. The beautiful and mysterious Sidal inspired Rossetti, and he used her as a model to paint many paintings, all of which were based on Dante's works. In Rossetti's mind, Cidard was Dante's beloved Beatrice, and he himself was the great poet Dante Arrigueli who wrote The Divine Comedy. They are in love. It was a medieval love that "comprises a mournful, otherworldly, incorporeal mystical passion". It was a kind of Pre-Raphaelite love, with a mysterious, idealistic undertone and unspeakable sadness.
After a long love run, they married in 1860. But Sidar was terminally ill with tuberculosis. Two years later, Sidar died quietly after taking an overdose of opium tincture for pain relief, a dose Rossetti thought would cure her. As a final tribute, the grieving Rossetti accompanied his beloved wife to burial with one of his poems. Her heart has gone with her, Rossetti no longer writes poetry, and also gave up painting with fantasy themes.
A few years later, the pain of losing his wife gradually subsided. In order to face the world again as a poet, Rossetti began to collect lost old poems, but the most important part has been buried in the ground of Highgate Cemetery. After a desperate inner struggle, Rossetti made a major decision: to excavate his poems from the grave of his dead wife. He wanted to keep it a secret forever, but it turned out to be one of the most famous events in literary history. When published in 1870, the legendary collection of poems became an instant sensation. Since then, self-blame and guilt towards his deceased wife, as well as unprovoked attacks from public opinion, have always plagued Rossetti's sensitive and fragile inner world.
The persistent Hunter wanted to find a way to prove that dream. Finally, he found religion. He believes that art is religion, and religion is the best means of reform. In order to be "faithful to nature", he was going to Palestine and Syria. He will seek the truth in the footsteps of Christ. The trip risked the dangers of war and turmoil, and it meant automatically withdrawing from the race for fame, but Hunter had no regrets, he had heard the call of God, and he had a noble mission on his shoulders.
On the deserted shore of the Dead Sea, in the colorful holy city of Jerusalem, Hunter found the purest and most poetic landscape in the world. He waved his pencil and worked hard. In the creative process full of dangers, hardships and sufferings, his understanding of faith became more and more thorough. "Past" is Jesus living in the world, "future" is Jesus' return to the world; "faithfulness to nature" is the hard road to pure soul; reform is to make people's lives more valuable. The religious spirit of the Pre-Raphaelite dream dominated Hunter's mind.
Hunter made three trips to Palestine. In 1866, he suffered cholera on a trip to the Middle East with his wife shortly after their marriage, and returned as a widower with a motherless child. Hunter lived in the Holy City from 1869 to 1874, alone, miserable, and exhausted. Due to the extraordinarily arduous labor required for each painting, Hunter's works were few in that period. Like a medieval monk who put peas in his shoes, Hunter devised all kinds of difficulties for himself in order to cultivate a noble mind and spread the spirit of religion. To his disappointment, however, social reality has not changed.
Millais was elected to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in 1853, the institution's means of dismantling the deviant arts group. In Millais' mind, coexisting with the Pre-Raphaelite ideas was the prodigy of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. For the school, he adored and revered. He has a kind of confidence in his own power, and he firmly believes that he is a sun. The dream of the Pre-Raphaelite gradually disappeared in his heart, and he entered a well-ordered and comfortable social circle, fascinated by the way of life of the country nobility. He must rely on his own success in order to enjoy the joys of that field. At first, he painted with sincerity, maximizing his artistic talents. But what those paintings provoke is hostility and hatred. This led him to a terrible conclusion: "No one really understands art". He began to drift with the flow, only to find himself swimming in fashion with ease. He painted a large number of Scottish landscapes, portraits and children's works, which were generally popular and brought him a handsome income of tens of thousands of pounds a year. He succeeded, but at the cost of betraying his ideals and deviating from the artist's conscience.
Rising star The idea of Pre-
Raphaelite spread to all walks of life, forming a cultural trend that attracted the attention of universities. At Oxford University, two students grasped the pre-Raphaelite dream and wanted to inject new content into it. They were William Morris and Edward Burn-Jones.
Morris was born into a wealthy businessman's family in the suburbs of London, he was honest, strong and strong. Burne-Jones is his classmate and friend. Ruskin was their prophet. Reading Ruskin's lectures led them to discover the Pre-Raphaelites; in his famous book The Stones of Venice, Ruskin's brilliant descriptions of Gothic and naturalistic styles fascinated them. During the summer they travelled to France to explore the enchanting medieval towns and Gothic architecture. In 1856, at the age of 22, Morris completed his studies, and he was ready to enter the Street Design Office to engage in the study and design of Gothic architecture. It was at this time that Burne-Jones met Rossetti. Rossetti encouraged Burne-Jones and Morris to pick up paintbrushes. Therefore, they were determined to become Pre-Raphaelite painters and devoted themselves to the reform of painting art.
In 1861, the painters established a workshop called "The Maurice Marshall Faulkner Company". The statutes drawn up by Rossetti spell out the purpose of the workshop, which will research, make and sell decorations for fine art tastes, not expensive prices. Morris believes that art is a cause that is conducive to reform, and handicraft workshops are a place to cultivate morality. It uses products to express a belief and set a model of civilized life for people, thereby improving the public's aesthetic taste and improving the public's aesthetic taste. daily life situation. The workshop is a yearning for a better past and an expectation for the future. It represents an ethical, moral and philosophical code, and represents a social system. The company was very popular, but it started with little financial gain. Morris, who was born with a business acumen, quickly discovered business opportunities in church decoration and greatly expanded his business scope.
Maurice is of high moral character, talented, imaginative and pragmatic. He writes poetry, paints and designs, never forgetting the ideals of Pre-Raphaelite; he presides over the company's operations with a clear style, and at the same time does it himself. Morris's design is innovative and unique, all inspired by that dream reconstructed from the past. His wallpapers and calicoes painted in pure tones and rich in detail are the company's main product and become a model for interior decoration. Morris adheres to the original creed of "faithful to nature" in design, but he has his own interpretation: nature is the truth of nature, it is unpretentious, it is ancient England; it is as warm as rough pottery, like the fields beside a farmhouse as fragrant as the flowers. In 1875 the painters signed some documents and the company name was shortened to "The Morris Company". The genius Morris runs the company, which has grown into home decor, furniture, rugs, wall hangings, dyed fabrics, stained glass and metalwork.
Morris, at the peak of his career, kept in mind the original intention of social reform. He believes that machine production in pursuit of commercial profit is the bane of the divide between rich and poor, so he opposes the use of machines and advocates the protection and revival of handicraft production. In 1881, in a small village called Merton in Surrey, Morris converted the original dyeing and weaving workshop into a garden-like workshop - "Merton Place", where the prints he designed were produced on a large scale. Cotton and decorations. Merton Place, where the birds are singing and the flowers are fragrant, is a place that everyone likes. Morris dreams of transforming the whole society according to its model, so that the homeless and poor people become happy, successful, self-respecting workers, and he himself will become more loving. first-class production managers. In 1883, Morris joined the socialist organization, the "Democratic League," to finance the labor movement and to give lectures to promote its progressive ideas. However, after encountering many setbacks, he developed a kind of aristocratic contempt in his heart, and he felt that he could not distinguish between the poor and the rich, who was more mercenary and stupid. In 1887 workers' assemblies were suppressed and bloodshed occurred. Morris's dream of reforming social realities fell silent along with the labor movement.
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