"Then you are Pre-Raphaelite!" the other students cried, laughing, when
self-willed Hunt quoted Sir Charles Ball to prove that the action of
the demoniac boy in Raphael's "Transfiguration" was all wrong. The word
was caught up, turned into a challenge, _P_ and _R_, two of the mystic
initials that were so soon to charm and to enrage London, were formed.
The _B_ was added at the suggestion of Rossetti, whose love of the
mediaeval at once required a "Brotherhood." Need it be said that there
had to be seven Brothers, and that the Brotherhood was to be kept a
secret? Rossetti's brother William, who had never learnt how to draw; a
nominal pupil of Hunt's, F. G. Stephens, who had never learnt how to
paint; Woolner, who was a sculptor, and James Collinson, were quickly
enlisted. "Collinson," said Rossetti, "is a born stunner."
"Where's your flock?" shouted out Millais. "I expected to see them
behind you. Tell me all about it."
They held their first meeting in his studio, over a set of engravings of
the frescoes in the Campo Santo at Pisa. The three leaders were all, at
this time, eager to establish some starting-point for their art "which
would be secure, if it were ever so humble." They admired what was true
in the works of Raphael as much as any one else. "Pre-Raphaelitism is
not Pre-Raphaelism," but they held that, since his day, pride and the
dogged observance of rule without reference to Nature had destroyed
sincerity. As they turned over the pages of the book, they hailed with
delight in the old frescoes of Gozzoli that "freedom from corruption,
pride, and disease" for which they sought. "Think what a revelation it
was to find such work at such a moment, and to recognise it with the
triple enthusiasm of our three spirits!" They all agreed that they would
make a series of designs from Keats in the new manner. Millais' "Lorenzo
and Isabella," in his friends' judgment the most wonderful picture ever
painted by a man under twenty, was the immediate fruit of this resolve.
Nature had gifted Rossetti with a hopeful temperament which was of no
small service to Hunt in the dark days of discouragement that followed.
When the latter was tempted to mourn over the waste of his young years
in the city, the former pointed out to him that he had learnt to know
men, and the ways of men, instead of mere bookish things that were "of
very little use in life." What did it matter whether the sun went round
the earth or the earth went round the sun? What did anything scientific
matter in comparison with Dante, with the poetry of Browning, which he
would recite, over the fire, by twenty pages at a time, with Tennyson
and Henry Taylor and Coventry Patmore?[6] When Mr. James, the city man,
the owner of the original colour-box, reduced Hunt to despair by his
damning criticism of the new picture "Rienzi," "But the man's a born
fool!" exclaimed Rossetti, with screams of laughter. When pounds,
shillings, and pence ran low, "Can you not understand," said he, "that
there are hundreds of young aristocrats and millionaires growing up who
will be only too glad to get due direction how to make the country as
glorious as Greece was, and as Italy?" In Paris, in Belgium, in the
country he was the most delightful of companions, and it was he who led
as the Brethren walked up and down Stanhope Street after their work,
singing the _Marseillaise_ or _Mourir pour la patrie_.
[6] Hunt, who had written poetry himself, mostly in couplet
form, and in the Spenserian stanza, gave it up on account of
Rossetti's greater proficiency.
Throughout his youth, however, Rossetti acted on impulse, without
consideration as to the effect upon others. When it was time to send in
for the Academy he was not quite ready with the charming picture painted
in Hunt's studio, and, for the sake of a few more days in which to
finish, he sent instead to the Hyde Park Gallery, which opened a week
earlier than Burlington House. "The Girlhood of Mary, Virgin," signed
with the mystic P.R.B., the meaning of which was then unknown, except to
the seven Brothers, appeared, therefore, a week earlier than Hunt's
"Rienzi" and Millais' "Lorenzo and Isabella," signed with the same
initials, and, for good and for evil, Rossetti began to be spoken of as
the precursor of a new school. The effect on him was twofold. Unable to
endure hostile criticism, at the first touch of it, the year after, when
he showed "The Annunciation," he resolved that he would never again
exhibit in public; but, pleased at the pre-eminence given him by those
who were not behind the scenes, he withdrew from partnership with Hunt
in the studio; and more and more, as time went on, from his society and
that of Millais.
[Illustration: PLATE V.--THE SCAPEGOAT
"The Apostles regarded it (the Scapegoat) as a symbol of
the Christian Church, teaching both them and their
followers submission and patience under affliction....
One important part of the ceremony was the binding a
scarlet fillet round the head of this second goat when
he was conducted away from the Temple, hooted at with
execration, and stoned until he was lost to sight in the
wilderness. The High Priest kept a portion of this
scarlet fillet in the Temple, with the belief that it
would become white if the corresponding fillet on the
fugitive goat had done so, as a signal that the Almighty
had forgiven their iniquities.... The whole image is a
perfect one of the persecution and trials borne by the
Apostolic Church, and perhaps by the Church, as subtly
understood, to this day."
The picture was originally called "Azazel": it was
painted near Oosdoom by the Dead Sea. "Every minute the
mountains became more gorgeous and solemn, the whole
scene more unlike anything ever portrayed. Afar all
seemed of the brilliancy and preciousness of jewels,
while near, it proved to be only salt and burnt lime,
with decayed trees and broken branches brought down by
the rivers feeding the lake. Skeletons of animals, which
had perished for the most part in crossing the Jordan and
the Jabbok, had been swept here, and lay salt-covered, so
that birds and beasts of prey left them them untouched.
It was a most appropriate scene for my subject, and each
minute I rejoiced more in my work."
_W. H. H._