"Truth to Nature, as understood by the Pre-Raphaelites, was in fact a limited kind of truth. It was exact and precise detail. They had a craving to paint every leaf with botanical accuracy, every wrinkle and accident of form with a microscopic faithfulness..." [2].

The name of the Brotherhood itself referred to a time when the visual art of painting was more liberated from "school rules". In his essay about the founding of the Brotherhood, William Rossetti writes:

"It would be a mistake to suppose, because they called themselves Pre-Raphaelites, that they seriously disliked the works produced by Raphael; but they disliked the works produced by Raphael's uninspired satellites...The Pre-Raphaelite Brothers entertained a deep respect and a sincere affection for the works of some of the artists who had preceded Raphael; and they thought that they should more or less be following the lead of those artists if they themselves were to develop their own individuality, disregarding school-rules." [3].

The immediate impetus for the creation of the Brotherhood occurred in the Fall of 1848, when the young men spent an evening at John Everett Millais' home on 83 Gower Street in London looking at a volume of engravings that illustrated the frescoes in the Campo Santo at Pisa. The frescoes had been created in the 14th and 15th centuries, by such artists as Benozzo Gozzoli and Orcagna. The Brotherhood identified with these pre-Raphael artists. With youthful gusto the rebels set about to undermine the status quo by rejecting the wisdom inherited from the Raphaelic High Renaissance. That wisdom, codified in the 18th century, became the school-rule of the 19th century. It was this canon the Brotherhood sought to disable.

Early Reaction to the P.R.B.

By 1850 the P.R.B. had put into practice its "Truth to Nature" dogma with several paintings exhibited during the Royal Academy's 1850 summer show. Hunt and Millais had paintings in the show. Reading a reviewer's comments about the exhibit makes it clear that the Brotherhood's assault on the established art community was having an effect.

"We cannot censure at present as amply or as strongly as we desire to do, that strange disorder of the mind or the eyes which continues to rage with unabated absurdity among a class of juvenile artists who style themselves P.R.B., which being interpreted, means Pre-Raphael-brethren...The Council of the Academy, acting in a spirit of toleration and indulgence to young artists, have now allowed these extravagances to disgrace their walls...the public may fairly require that such offensive jests should not continue to be exposed...These young artists have unfortunately become notorious by addicting themselves to an antiquated style and an affected simplicity in Painting...To become great in art, it has been said that a painter must become as a little child...but the authors of these offensive and absurd productions have continued to combine puerility or infancy of their art with the uppishness and self-sufficiency of a different period of life...That morbid infatuation which sacrifices truth, beauty and genuine feeling to mere eccentricity deserves no quarter at the hands of the public..." [4].

William Holman Hunt
"Valentine Rescuing Sylvia from Proteus" (1851)
Oil on canvas, 98.4 cm x 133.4 cm

The Germ

In August of 1849 the Brotherhood discussed the publication of a literary periodical which would function as the official organ of the P.R.B. At their meetings various names for the publication were considered including "Thoughts Toward Nature", "The P.R.B. Journal", and "The Seed". Finally, on December 19, 1849 the Brotherhood settled on The Germ as the name of their magazine. Designed as a monthly, illustrated, one-shilling literary magazine The Germ first appeared in January 1850.

Noteworthy for being an early example of an "alternative" publication, Derek Sanders, editor of Pre-Raphaelite Writing makes the following observation:

One of the innovations of the Pre-Raphaelite Movement is that species of periodical publication, the avant-garde manifesto-cum-magazine. The house magazine of the P.R.B., The Germ is the prototype of other forward-feeling journals of the arts..." [5].

There were only four issues of The Germ and mainly because of financial difficulties, it ceased publication after the April 1850 number. Despite its short life-span the magazine was influential. William Morris and his Exeter College schoolmate Edward Burne-Jones read the magazine. Inspired by the magazine, they became disciples of the Pre-Raphaelites and formed the backbone of the second wave of the movement. Morris and Burne-Jones continued the new genre of literary magazine when in 1856 they published The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine. This latter magazine, considered superior in quality to its recent ancestor, lasted a year.

(Altered) Cover: The Germ No. 2
February 1850








"P. R. B."

by Christina Rossetti

The two Rossettis (brothers they)
And Holman Hunt and John Millais
With Stevens chivalrous and bland,
And Woolner in a distant land--
In these six men I awestruck see
Embodied the great P.R.B.
D. G. Rossetti offered two
Good pictures to the public view;
Unnumbered ones great John Millais
And Holman more than I can say.

William Rossetti, calm and solemn,
Cuts up his brethern by the column.

Pre-Raphaelite Outer Links

• Pre-Raphaelite Collection at WebMagick

• The Pre-Raphaelite Bibliophile/Technophile Home Page

• Pre-Raphaelite Art Sources

• An Anthology of Pre-Raphaelite Writings

• Pre-Raphaelites and Illustration

• The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

• The Germ: A Hypermedia Edition

• The Consumptive Rose: Pre-Raphealite Art Online

• Aesthetic Pre-Raphaelitism

• Portraits of Morris and his Circle

• The Rossetti Archive

• The Pre-Raphaelites & Things Victorian

• The English Server

• Victorian Web Sites

• Pre-Raphaelite Society

• The Pre-Raphaelite Critic

• Muse a novel about art & artists by Deborah Mattingly Conner and inspired by D.G. Rossetti

• 1998 Official Pre-Raphaelite Team Roster

Cosmic Player Plates

Individual Cosmic Player Plates will be published online during the season. Access to those plates as they become available will be included on this Roster by using a hypertext link placed on the player's picture.

Each plate usually includes biographical text and images, links to other related sites and other ephemera. The Cosmic Baseball Association welcomes your contributions to these player plates.

A list of available player plates will be maintained here and updated as necessary.

Available Pre-Raphaelite Player Plates

James Leathart

John Millais

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

William Bell Scott

Elizabeth Siddal

Chales Algernon Swinburne

Maria Zambaco