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Europe 1800 - 1900
Course: Europe 1800 - 1900 > Unit 4
Lesson 2: The Pre-Raphaelites and mid-Victorian art- A Beginner's Guide to the Pre-Raphaelites
- The Aesthetic Movement
- Pre-Raphaelites: Curator's choice - Millais's Isabella
- Sir John Everett Millais, Isabella
- Sir John Everett Millais, Christ in the House of His Parents
- Sir John Everett Millais, Christ in the House of His Parents
- Sir John Everett Millais, Ophelia
- Sir John Everett Millais, Ophelia
- Millais, Ophelia
- Millais, Mariana
- Millais, Mariana
- Millais, Portrait of John Ruskin
- A Portrait of John Ruskin and Masculine Ideals of Dress in the Nineteenth Century
- Sir John Everett Millais, Spring (Apple Blossoms)
- Millais, The Vale of Rest
- Millais, The Vale of Rest
- John Everett Millais, Bubbles
- Hunt, Claudio and Isabella
- Hunt, Claudio and Isabella
- Hunt, Our English Coasts ("Strayed Sheep")
- Hunt, Our English Coasts ("Strayed Sheep")
- Hunt, Our English Coasts
- Hunt, the Awakening Conscience
- Hunt, The Awakening Conscience
- William Holman Hunt, Isabella or the Pot of Basil
- William Holman Hunt, The Lady of Shalott
- William Holman Hunt, The Shadow of Death
- William Holman Hunt, The Scapegoat
- Ford Madox Brown, Work
- Ford Madox Brown, The Last of England
- Ford Madox Brown, The Last of England
- Ford Madox Brown, Work
- Pre-Raphaelites: Curator's choice - Ford Madox Brown's 'Work'
- Rossetti, Ecce Ancilla Domini
- Rossetti, Beata Beatrix
- Rossetti, Proserpine
- Wallis, Chatterton
- Wallis, Chatterton
- William Powell Frith, Derby Day
- Dyce's Pegwell Bay, Kent - a Recollection of October 5th, 1858
- Dyce, Pegwell Bay, Kent - a Recollection of October 5th, 1858
- Emily Mary Osborn, Nameless and Friendless
- John Roddam Spencer Stanhope, Thoughts of the Past
- John Roddam Spencer Stanhope, Thoughts of the Past
- Burne-Jones, The Golden Stairs
- Burne-Jones, The Golden Stairs
- Burne-Jones, King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid
- Burne-Jones, King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid
- Sleeping Beauty — but without the Kiss: Burne-Jones and the Briar Rose series
- Burne-Jones, The Depths of the Sea
- Burne-Jones, Hope
- Burne-Jones, Hope
- Sir Edward Burne-Jones, four stained glass windows at Birmingham Cathedral
- Waterhouse, The Lady of Shalott
- William Butterfield, All Saints, Margaret Street
- William Morris and Philip Webb, Red House
- Pre-Raphaelites
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Sir John Everett Millais, Christ in the House of His Parents
Sir John Everett Millais, Christ in the House of His Parents, 1849-50, oil on canvas, 864 x 1397 mm (Tate Britain, London). Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Want to join the conversation?
- Do you think the crack in the wall above the triangle in the back is meant to create a cross? It seems that might be obvious, they just didn't mention it in the video. Anyone else have thoughts?(10 votes)
- I think the intentionality of the cross symbolism is at least probable (the "cross" can be seen clearly at), especially since the speakers mention the back wall symbolism of the triangle (standing in for the concept of Trinity, at 03:59), the ladder (linking to the descent of Christ from the Cross, at 03:30) and the dove (referring to Christ's baptism, at 03:40). 3:54
However, if the crack in the wall and the handle of the saw are indeed placed intentionally to visually refer to the cross, its lack of elegance is at odds with the rendering of the other symbols in the work (the triangle, ladder, dove, etc.). Considering how he rendered the other symbols (i.e., with actual objects/animals), would Millais really have wanted to visually refer to Christ's cross via a crack and the handle of a saw ?
More info on the work's symbolism here : http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/millais-christ-in-the-house-of-his-parents-the-carpenters-shop-n03584/text-summary.(4 votes)
- Do Dr Zucker and Dr Harris used prepared notes or a script when presenting these videos, because they are both so articulate and their rich vocabularies flow so easily that it is difficult to imagine that they are simply speaking spontaneously?(4 votes)
- That is very kind of you. Our conversations really are spontaneous and unscripted. However, we do edit the audio. We record on site and so we often have to edit out loud distracting noises. Motorcycle engines, police sirens, slammed doors and high heels clicking on stone floors, that sort of thing. We usually tighten up our conversations while we are at it.(12 votes)
- Is the red flower in the background a poppy? If so, does that also symbolize the impeding death of Christ?(4 votes)
- Traditionally, poppies stood for sleep, peace and death.(3 votes)
- Can anyone tell me who the other figures are (besides Christ, Mary, Joseph, and John the Baptist)? I'm guessing that the older woman is St. Anne, but I have no idea as to who the young man on the left is supposed to be.(3 votes)
- The young man on the left, a carpenter's apprentice, most likely symbolized an Apostle (but I don't know which one). I believe that you're right about St. Anne.(2 votes)
- Can we please just take a moment to appreciate the splendor that is that mass of sheep outside the door? By far the most entertaining part of this painting, which is so very different from what has come before.(3 votes)
- St Anne (the Virgin’s mother) and a carpenter’s assistant - see the next chapter(1 vote)
- I wondered about the identity of the Flemish adoration of the magi painting shown atin the video, since it doesn't seem to be listed at the end of the video. I googled it and found it was from the Monforte Altarpiece by Hugo van der Goes. Could this information be added to the list of paintings cited? 3:13(1 vote)
- Thanks for the video!! A quick question though, doesn't the Virgin Mary seem too small proportionally according to the perspective? Since it was mentioned in the previous articles, the PRB were quite careful to the details, so why would this easy mistake be made?(1 vote)
Video transcript
BETH HARRIS: We're
in Tate Britain, and we're looking at
John Everett Millais' really important early
pre-Raphaelite painting, "Christ in the House
of his Parents. STEVEN ZUCKER: The
pre-Raphaelites wanted to strip away all of
the traditions of painting that had accumulated, almost
like heavy layers of varnish, on paintings since the
Renaissance, since Raphael. And nowhere is that more
clearer than in this painting. BETH HARRIS: So what we see
here is Christ as a child. He's wounded himself. We see a drop of blood, clearly
foreshadowing the crucifixion. And we see Mary, his
mother, comforting him, and also, I think,
being comforted by him. And then we also see
Saint John the Baptist, and also Joseph, who's
also tending to Christ. STEVEN ZUCKER: He's
showing us Christ not in an idealized
environment, But in a workshop that reminded contemporary
viewers of what a carpenter's workshop in
mid-19th century England looked like, a kind
of specificity that showed that he was
really looking. BETH HARRIS: So it's
not idealized at all. It's not softened, it's
not made more beautiful. And all of that really went
against traditional treatments of the holy family, of Mary,
and Christ, and Saint Joseph, and Saint John. Since the time of
Raphael and Leonardo, those figures were truly
idealized in a way that reflected their divine status. So by taking that
idealization away, I think it felt, to
Victorian viewers, as though Millais had
undermined the spirituality of these figures. STEVEN ZUCKER: All
of that is true, but there are some exceptions. If we think back to the work,
for instance, of Caravaggio, you have an artist is
taking spiritual figures and placing them in a
world, that was concrete, that was low, that was real. But he was still
ensconcing them in a kind of spiritual darkness. And here it's as if Millais
has turned the lights on in a Caravaggio. And he's giving us this
brilliant spotlight on the specificity, even of
the dirt under the fingernails. BETH HARRIS: And
that was certainly something that was recognized
by Victorian viewers. This painting was attacked
by Charles Dickens, of all people, who
wrote, "In the foreground of that very carpenter's
shop is a hideous rye-necked, blubbering, redheaded
boy in a bed gown, who appears to have received
a poke in the hand from the stick of another boy
with whom he has been playing in an adjacent gutter. And to be holding it up
for the contemplation of a kneeling women, so
horrible in her ugliness, that she would stand
out from the rest of the company as a monster in
the vilest cabaret in France, or the lowest gin
shop in England." STEVEN ZUCKER:
It's so interesting to hear Dickens actually turn
against the kind of specificity that the artist is
rendering, since it's so much a part of
his own literature. But it does speak
to expectations in the 19th century about what
art should be, at this moment when the pre-Raphaelite
Brotherhood was trying to remake those expectations. BETH HARRIS: And so if you
look at the painting carefully, you can see that the
figures have an angularity. They move in ways that feel very
different from the gracefulness and elegance of
Renaissance figures. There's a linear
hardness to the way that Millais has
created their contours. STEVEN ZUCKER: And that hardness
reminds us of Flemish painting from before Rafael from,
say, the early 15th century. It is really the self-conscious
reviving of those ideas. And just like in that
northern Flemish painting, we also have
borrowed this notion that one can imbue ordinary
objects with symbolism. And this is a painting
that is full of symbolism. For instance, if we look just
over the young Christ's head, we can see on the back wall,
there's a carpenter's triangle. Just over Christ's head, that
triangle means something. It means the Trinity. BETH HARRIS: And we
might look at the ladder in the background, and
think about the ladder that we see in images of
the descent from the cross, where the followers of
Christ climb a ladder, in order to remove the nails and
bring him down from the cross. STEVEN ZUCKER: We
can see those nails, but also, on that
ladder, there's a dove, the reference to the ultimate
baptism of Christ, where the Holy Spirit will
appear, who's always was represented as a dove. BETH HARRIS: And we see Saint
John the Baptist actually on the right, carrying
a bowl of water. STEVEN ZUCKER: So
there is this kind of vivid rendering of all
these forms, all these people, with the kind of particularity
that is not idealized, that makes them all the more
true, all the more vivid. And so we can
immediately imagine why the Victorians had such
problems with this painting. [MUSIC PLAYING]