Pre-Raphaelites and Science

This revelatory book traces how the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and their close associates put scientific principles into practice across their painting, poetry, sculpture, and architecture. In their manifesto, The Germ, the Pre-Raphaelites committed themselves to creating a new kind of art modeled on science, in which precise observation could lead to discoveries about nature and humanity. In Oxford and London, Victorian scientists and Pre-Raphaelite artists worked together to design and decorate natural history museums as temples to God's creation. At the same time, journals like Nature and the Fortnightly Review combined natural science with Pre-Raphaelite art theory and poetry to find meaning and coherence within a worldview turned upside down by Darwin's theory of evolution. Offering reinterpretations of well-known works by John Everett Millais, William Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Ford Madox Brown, and William Morris, this major revaluation of the popular Victorian movement also considers less-familiar artists who were no less central to the Pre-Raphaelite project. These include William Michael Rossetti, Walter Deverell, James Collinson, John and Rosa Brett, John Lucas Tupper, and the O'Shea brothers, along with the architects Benjamin Woodward and Alfred Waterhouse.

About the author

John Holmes is professor of Victorian literature and culture, University of Birmingham.

Product details

• Authors: John Holmes
• Publisher: Yale University Press Ltd
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 30.06.2018
• EAN: 9780300232066
• ISBN: 978-0-300-23206-6
• No. of pages: 308
• Series: Studies in British Art; The Association of Human Rights Institutes series
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Art history; Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Natural sciences (general); Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900, European History, The arts: general issues, SCIENCE / History, HISTORY / World, ART / European, History of art & design styles: c 1800 to c 1900, HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / Victorian Era (1837-1901), c 1800 to c 1900, 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, General & world history, History of Art, History of Science, British & Irish history, United Kingdom, Great Britain, Romanticism, General and world history, Art & design styles: Romanticism, The arts: general topics, ART / History / European / Romanticism