Editing Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (section)

==Early doctrines==
The brotherhood's early doctrines, as defined by William Michael Rossetti, were expressed in four declarations:
<blockquote>
# to have genuine ideas to express;
# to study Nature attentively, so as to know how to express them;
# to sympathise with what is direct and serious and heartfelt in previous art, to the exclusion of what is conventional and self-parading<!-- "parading" NOT "parodying" --> and learned by rote; and
# most indispensable of all, to produce thoroughly good pictures and statues.<ref>Quoted by Latham, pp. 11–12; see also his comments</ref></blockquote>

The principles were deliberately non-dogmatic, since the brotherhood wished to emphasise the personal responsibility of individual artists to determine their own ideas and methods of depiction. Influenced by [[Romanticism]], the members thought freedom and responsibility were inseparable. Nevertheless, they were particularly fascinated by [[medieval]] culture, believing it to possess a [[spirituality|spiritual]] and creative integrity that had been lost in later eras. The emphasis on medieval culture clashed with principles of [[realism (arts)|realism]] which stress the independent observation of nature. In its early stages, the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood believed its two interests were consistent with one another, but in later years the movement divided and moved in two directions. The realists were led by Hunt and Millais, while the medievalists were led by Rossetti and his followers, [[Edward Burne-Jones]] and [[William Morris]]. The split was never absolute, since both factions believed that art was essentially spiritual in character, opposing their [[idealism]] to the [[materialism|materialist]] realism associated with [[Gustave Courbet|Courbet]] and [[Impressionism]].

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was greatly influenced by nature and its members used great detail to show the natural world using bright and sharp-focus techniques on a white canvas. In attempts to revive the brilliance of colour found in [[Quattrocento]] art, Hunt and Millais developed a technique of painting in thin [[Glaze (painting technique)|glaze]]s of pigment over a wet white ground in the hope that the colours would retain jewel-like transparency and clarity. Their emphasis on brilliance of colour was a reaction to the excessive use of [[bitumen]] by earlier British artists, such as Reynolds, [[David Wilkie (artist)|David Wilkie]] and [[Benjamin Robert Haydon]]. Bitumen produces unstable areas of muddy darkness, an effect the Pre-Raphaelites despised.

In 1848, Rossetti and Hunt made a list of "Immortals", artistic heroes whom they admired, especially from literature, some of whose work would form subjects for PRB paintings, notably including [[John Keats|Keats]] and [[Alfred, Lord Tennyson|Tennyson]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-pre-raphaelites|title=The Pre-Raphaelites|website=The British Library}}</ref>