라파엘 전파의 셰익스피어 재현에 대한 여성론적 고찰

Abstract

The formation of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood in 1848 by seven enthusiastic young men was an epoch-making event in the history of British Painting. Hunt, Millais and Rossetti led the revolutionary movement, attacking the out-worn artistic conventions of the time. As they had been profoundly impressed by Ruskin's phrase "Truth to Nature", they tried to return to the naturalness and innocence of the medieval paintings before Raphael. The bold bright colours, the meticulous details and no use of perspective are the chief characteristics of the Pre-Raphaelite paintings. At first, their revolutionary paintings received a storm of abuse from both the critics and spectators who were familiar with the artistic conventions of centuries. However they became a mainstream after a few years, accommodating themselves to public opinion and taste; bourgeois' earnestness and moral strictness. The Pre-Raphaelites called as poetic painters were fascinated by Shakespeare. Therefore many of them painted lots of Shakespearean scenes. The earlier Pre-Raphelite painters like Millais mainly represented the Shakespearean women driven to despair from their lost love; Ophelia in Hamlet or Mariana in Measure for Measure. The women are locked in the claustrophobic space and are represented as passive and inert ones like Victorian middle class women. The post Pre-Raphelite painters like John William Waterhouse made many femmes fatale images which circulated throughout the late 19th-century art. His Cleopatra is the most typical one of femme fatale images. Hunt, a strict moralist drew some scenes from Shakespeare to deliver his moral messages over women's chastity and the negligence of public duty. We can perceive the obvious patriarchal ideology in these paintings. In other words Shakespeare scenes were used as a vehicle through which the Pre-Raphaelite (male) painters revealed their cultural concerns. It means Shakespeare's works have the infinite capability to contain taste and creed of any ages.