PRE-RAPHAELITES’ IDENTITY AS A GROUP
PRE-RAPHAELITES’ IDENTITY AS A GROUP

Summary/Abstract: While most art criticism of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century denied the Pre-Raphaelite group a prominent place in British art, and critics like Clive Bell were convinced that ,,The Pre-Raphaelite call in question the whole tradition of the Classical Renaissance, and add a few more names to the heavy roll of notoriously bad painters.” (Bell, 1914: 184-6), during the 1960s, the perception of the Pre-Raphaelite art began to change and finally succeeded in asserting the Pre-Raphaelite canon. The paintings belonging to the members of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, exhibited between 1849 and 1851, contained elements that subsequently were to range Pre-Raphaelite art within the category of masterpieces and entitled art historians to reconsider the grounds that settled the association. Their achievements seem to show an obvious strife for cohesive approaches connected to technique, the use of materials and subject matter.

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