A group of artists "rebels", between 19 and 23 years, in 1848 founded the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (Pre-Raphaelite Broterhood - PRB) with the aim of renewing the English painting. Convinced of the decline of art, because of the severity of the academic rules arising from Italian artists of the Renaissance, they proposed to pay attention to medieval art to find their true essence.
In short original phase, which lasted until 1853, Dante Gabriel Rossetti , William Holman Hunt and John Everett Millais began to model the engravings of Carlo Lasinio who had played the frescoes of the Campo Santo of Pisa, the boards of Beato Angelico of Duccio di Buoninsegna with a deep attention to naturalistic details, in most cases, taken from life. The recurring themes of the paintings were inspired by the Italian literature, especially from Divine Comedy and to New Life of Dante Alighieri , but also by the tragedies, the stories of biblical and evangelical. Popular images of women, become the symbol of the movement, sometimes symbols virtuous, sometimes negative women.
The current exhibition in Ravenna, entitled " The Pre-Raphaelites and the dream of '400 Italian. From Fra Angelico to Perugino, from Rossetti to Burne-Jones ", focuses on the origins of the movement, on the premises that have made this development possible in the art of the nineteenth century.
Last but not least, the 'influence and support of art critic John Ruskin , who shared the same ideals on spontaneity and purity of the pre-Renaissance works.
Within the halls of Tues an exhibition of works by Fra Angelico, the anonymous artists of Ferrara and the important presenza delle incisioni di Lisinio e degli acquerelli di Ruskin, che ritraggono l'Italia, i suoi monumenti medievali che influenzeranno le sue successive teorie sul restauro. La mostra propone anche uno spaccato della Scuola Etrusca : un gruppo di paesaggisti inglesi, capitanati dal pittore italiano Giovanni Costa , che non si possono iscrivere nel movimento preraffaellita, ma che di certo conservano alcuni punti di contatto. Si tratta di opere provenienti nella maggior parte dai musei inglesi, ma che ci riconducono all'Italia in modo quasi brusco: la "scoperta" della decorazione musiva progettata da Burne-Jones per la chiesa di San Paolo dentro le Mura a Roma is a beautiful example.
demerit A small note is the lack of well-known paintings, easily traced back to the Movement. These paintings are only "minor" Rossetti, with a few exceptions was marred by problems of loans that have led to expose a couple of plays, as happened to "The Garland."
Overall, if you have an interest in nineteenth-century English painting, the exhibition has the merit of bringing for the first time in Italy usually ignored by the public works of ours, as is usually shown little interest for the Pre-Raphaelites, but never included in the curriculum of art history.
The Pre-Raphaelites and the Italian dream. From Fra Angelico to Perugino, from Rossetti to Burne-Jones.
Editors: Colin Harrison, Christopher Newall, Claudio Spadoni
Art Museum of Ravenna
Ravenna, February 28 to June 6 2010
The Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Oxford, September 15 - December 5, 2010
Catalog : Silvana Editoral
Admission: € 8 concessions € 6
