The Influence of Pre-Raphaelitism on Fin-de-Siècle Italy

This volume is the first comprehensive study of the influence of English Pre-Raphaelitism on Italian art and culture in the late nineteenth century.Analysis of the cultural relations between Italy and Britain has focusedtraditionally on the special place that Italy had in the British imagination butthe cultural and artistic exchanges between the two countries have beenmuch misunderstood.This book aims to correct this imbalance by placing Pre-Raphaelitism in itsEuropean context. It explores the nature of its influence on Italy how it wastransmitted and how it was manifested by focusing on the role of ItalianAnglophiles the English communities in Florence and Rome the writings ofGabriele D'Annunzio and a number of Italian artists active in Tuscany andRome.The works of Cellini Ricci Gioja De Carolis and Sartorio in particular fullydemonstrate the impact of Pre-Raphaelitism on the young Italian school ofpainting which found in the English movement an ideal link with its gloriouspast on which it could build a new artistic identity. These artists show thatEnglish Pre-Raphaelitism was one of the most powerful single influences onfin de siècle Italian culture.