The Purpose and Tendency of Early Italian Art George Frederick Stephens 1 1849
critical essay <artist/> <location/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnpictorial> <citnmythic> <name/> <culture/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnmythic> <citnhistorical> <event/> <place/> <date/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnhistorical> <citnautobiographical> <name/> <place/> <date/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnautobiographical> <citnscenic> <place/> <date/> <bibl/> <note/> </citnscenic> </listcitn> </source> <commentaries> <head>Commentary</head> <section type="intro"> <head>Introduction</head> <p>According to WMR, this essay by Stephens was originally titled “<quote>The Revival of the Feeling in Early Art</quote>” when it was read to him and DGR in December 1849 (see <xref doc="a.nd467.5.p7r58.rad" link="dead" from="46">Fredeman, <title level="bk"> <hi rend="i">The P.R.B. Journal</hi> , 31). The essay is a good statement of Pre-Raphaelite ideas about trecento and quattrocento Italian art, and in particular about DGR's views (see especially the second paragraph). Moving from a Ruskinian statement about “Nature” in landscape painting, Stephens proposes to extend that line of art criticism to “historical painting”. Stephens's focus recalls the thinking of DGR, who was relatively uninterested in landscape painting. Also, his argument about the decline of European art from the examples set in the early Italian Renaissance is distinctly Pre-Raphaelite, just as his plea for a return to Nature is inspired by Ruskin's work.

Stephens (1828-1907) was art editor for the <hi rend="i">Athenaeum</hi> for forty years. In that position he was a powerful force for promoting the work of the Pre-Raphaelites, and of DGR in particular. Stephens regularly submitted his copy to DGR before having it published, so that his commentaries have a quasi-authorized status.

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It was printed in <hi rend="i">The Germ</hi> no. 2, pages 58-64.

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Fredeman 147-148

Germ text Monotonous...regard: Robert Browning, “Pictor Ignotus”, 58-61. The Time...of thought: “The American Scolar” (1837). Stephens runs through some key figures in the Florentine School: Benozzo Gozzoli (1424-1485), whose “Vineyard” is one of his frescoes done for the Campo Santo at Pisa. Lorenzo Ghiberti (1378-1455); Fra Angelico (1387-1455); Masaccio (1400-1443); Domenico dal Ghirlandaio (1451-1495); Fra Bartolommeo, Baccio della Porta (1475-1517); Andrea Orcagna (d. 1368/9); Giotto (1276-1336); Masaccio (1401-1428). His sources, cited in his footnote, were the standard ones of the period: Jean Baptiste Louis Georges Seroux d'Agincourt, <hi rend="i">Histoire de l'art par les monumens</hi> 6 vols. (1823); Giovanni Rosini, <hi rend="i">Storia della pittura italiana esposta coi monumenti</hi> 7 vols. (1839); William Young Ottley, <hi rend="i">The Italian school of design</hi> (1823). My strength...pure: Tennyson, “Sir Galahad”, 3-4. William Penn, <hi rend="i">No Cross, No Crown</hi> (1668). Lessing: unidentified.
Germ text The Germ (British Library Copy, second issue) William Michael Rossetti 1850 January 31 0 The Germ (1901 Facsimile Reprint, issue 2) William Michael Rossetti 1901 0