The Germ & the Band Perry

Hey, here’s some added information on the Pre-Raphaelite style of art, and some resources if anyone’s curious to know more!



Please keep in mind that the Pre-Raphaelites were not artists that existed before Raphael, but who were inspired by the style of art that was popular before his lifetime. They themselves lived after him, during the Victorian era. They were a gathering of male artists who wanted to revolutionize art by rejecting the popular neoclassical style of the time. They felt, according William Rossetti’s introduction to The Germ, that “this condition of the art seemed offensive, contemptible, and even scandalous” (Gutenberg) because of the absence of original, creative ideas that was a feature of neoclassical-inspired pieces. They chose to instead employ stylistic elements common in medieval artwork, specifically Gothic aesthetics, as it encouraged simplicity and originality. Finding solidarity in each other’s ideas, they founded the Brotherhood in September of 1848, and in the following year began to construct works that were based on this specific intention.



The Brotherhood also published a magazine-like periodical centered on prominent Pre-Raphaelite poems and essays of the time, as well as critical reflections of the artists themselves about these works, entitled “The Germ: Thoughts towards Nature in Poetry, Literature and Art”.



You can actually read a publication of some of the issues that was compiled by William Michael Rossetti and edited by his brother, Dante (both being members of the original Brotherhood), online on Project Gutenburg, if you’re curious - it’s very in-depth, with an extensive inclusion of poems from the same period and with the same themes as those we are studying. It even has an introduction from Rossetti discussing their intentions and the history of the Brotherhood’s formation in detail. It’s a very valuable source, and even more so as it’s straight from the horse’s mouth:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17649/17649-h/17649-h.htm



However, The Germ encompasses only text. If you want to see some of the Pre-Raphaelite paintings, rather than the poetry, here’s a site created by the Delaware Art Museum, with a handy overview outlining more of their main characteristics at http://www.preraph.org and a gallery featuring ten pieces of PRB art located in their own collection: http://www.preraph.org/gallery/ It can give you a very good idea of what the ideas actually looked like when translated onto canvas.



In a more contemporary vein, we also found this music video that was made by The Band Perry for their song ‘If I Die Young’. It actually works as a modern revisioning of The Lady of Shalott, and you can see that it reflects and makes use of a lot of the same tropes as the original poem (and many of the characteristics inspired by Pre-Raphaelite art) - the heavy natural imagery, the emphasis on the female form and female beauty, the role of the river, the interplay of themes of death, sight and innocence, and the act of drawing from literary sources from information.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NJqUN9TClM



Enjoy!



Jillian, Jarrett & Thuraya



References:

The Broadview Anthology of British Literature Concise Edition Vol. B. Ed. Don LePan. Peterborough: Broadview Press, 2008. 519-21.

"The Germ". Project Gutenberg.January 2006. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17649/17649-h/17649-h.htm. Web.