Victorian approaches to religion as reflected in the art of the Pre-Raphaelites

John Ruskin, the dogmatic, by at heart deeply doubtful art-critic, William Holman Hunt, the moralist artist-preacher, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, the intuitive poet-painter, John Everett Millais, the conscientious realist then popular sentimentalist, and their numerous followers represent different aspects of Pre-Raphaelitism. Yet, they were all typical Victorians, whose religious ideas and biblical works give a fascinating insight into the momentous religious concerns of the age: the fervent sectarian debates of the middle of the nineteenth century, the spread of agnosticism, the new Bible-interpretations called forth by scientific discoveries, and the move towards reconciliation and secularisation at the end of the century.--Back cover.