


They thought that all forms of art were closely linked, so they encouraged PRB members to dabble in different media: painters tried writing poetry, and poets tried painting. The PRB wanted to buck the system and rebel against the kind of art taught by the Royal Academy schools in England. The Pre-Raphaelites were also progressive and forward thinking. Pre-Raphaelite painters and poets depicted even the humblest objects with great detail – nothing was beneath their notice.īut their art wasn't just about nostalgia for the past. They wanted both visual art and poetry to return to the intense colors and vivid detail typical of artists in the early Italian Renaissance. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB) was a group of painters, poets, and critics who thought that art had gone down the tubes since the time of the Renaissance Italian painter Raphael. Encouraged by her family, she eventually published a collection of poetry, Goblin Market and Other Poems, in 1862. She wrote occasional poems and essays for the Pre-Raphaelite journal, The Germ. But like her brothers, Christina was also closely associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Like her sister, she was a devout Anglo-Catholic. Like many young English women in the Victorian period (i.e., during the reign of Queen Victoria, or 1837-1901), Christina Rossetti was educated at home. Maria Francesca, Christina's older sister, was intensely religious and eventually became a nun. William Michael Rossetti another brother, was a literary and art critic. Christina's brother, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, was a poet, a painter, and a prominent member of the artistic group called the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Rossetti was married to an English woman, and he continued to live in England because he couldn't return to Italy. Christina's father, Gabriele Rossetti, was an Italian political refugee. Christina Rossetti was the youngest child in a family of poets, artists, and philosophers. The Rossettis were an extraordinary family. "Goblin Market" is about two sisters, one of whom gets sick after eating bad goblin fruit, and is healed because of her sister's bravery. Not that it's uninteresting on the surface, or narrative, level. And guess what – this means there's plenty of work to be done digging up the good stuff. Christina Rossetti 's "Goblin Market," like most art by members of the Pre-Raphaelite group, is teeming with symbolism.
