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They thought that the age in which these principles were mostly cherished, was the age of the early Italian masters. They saw from Giotto to Leonardo strong evidences of grace and decorative charm, observation and definition of certain appearances of nature, and patient and loving, but not mechanical labour. They did not take these earlier painters as their models, but they wished to revert the principles of an artistic age in which painting was carried on, not after a dominating tradition but on strong individual lines. In technique the Brotherhood took the the use of primary colours, avoided low tones and dark backgrounds and developed each individual portion of a picture with the same fidelity. The only modern painter in whom they found an original and independent spirit was Blake. Moreover the movement was literary as well as artistic as its leader was both poet and painter; the theories written on art were as many as the pictures painted. In Blake's critical opinions Rossetti found many criticisms which he held among the best ever expressed on art. Blake's aversion to Rembrandt and Rubens, to Reynolds and the Venetian painters was shared for the greater part by Rossetti who, himself a man of violent temper[1]), could appreciate Blake's strong abuse of these painters, who had abandoned the high ideals of art. When in Brussels 1849 visiting the Picture Gallery, Rossetti writes to his brother: "One room was full of Rubens, so we held aloof". In his journey through Belgium he admires the mystic paintings of van Eyck, especially his Mystic Marriage of St. Catherine and the Saviour, but it is interesting to see how he was to a greater extent fascinated by the power of another Flemish primitive, Memling, on account of the intellectual superiority of the latter. Of Rubens he writes from Antwerp again: "Rubens seems to be considered here a common fool enough". The aversion to Sir Joshua Reynolds showed itself in the nick-name "Sloshua" given to him by Millais and suggested
- ↑ In F. Madox Brown's diary we find written about Rossetti's temper: "He has left off abusing his enemies, that apparently having lost its zest from overuse — and now vituperates his friends — or those of the person addressed, as more provoking".
