Deliberate Regression: The Italian Primitives and English Taste, 1770–1850

Liz Skalicky

Advisor: Dr. Ann Johns

Abstract

This study examines the evolution of English aesthetic preferences between 1770 and 1850, focusing on the reception and reevaluation of the Italian Primitives by the British art world. It highlights the influential role of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in challenging the prevailing aesthetic norms established by institutions like the Royal Academy and the National Gallery, which initially dismissed Italian Primitive works as crude and regressive. By exploring how aesthetic hierarchies were manipulated by the ruling class to reinforce social and moral agendas, this paper traces the shifting aesthetic tastes of Victorian England as Italian Primitive works gradually gained acceptance and admiration. It includes a case study of Pre-Raphaelite painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti, whose paintings The Girlhood of Mary Virgin and Ecce Ancilla Domini! possess a truly peculiar primitive aesthetic for their 1848 and 1850 dates of completion. This paper also traces the broader cultural impact of the Pre-Raphaelite’s philosophies, linking them to contemporaneous social themes and subsequent artistic movements. It is the position of this thesis that the Pre-Raphaelites were pivotal agents in the aesthetic transition from institutional illusionism to personal expression.