『이사벨라; 혹은, 바질 화분』과 라파엘전파 회화

Isabella; or, The Pot of Basil and Pre-Raphaelite Paintings

This essay explores the major themes of John Keats's Isabella; or, The Pot of Basil and cultural changes in Victorian era revealed in Pre-Raphaelite paintings, John Everett Millais's Lorenzo and Isabella and William Holman Hunt's Isabella and The Pot of Basil. John Ruskin's aesthetic democratization inspired the first-generation Pre- Raphaelite artists with the idea of social reform and moral edification of the masses through art. However, aesthetic democratization, censured by conservatives for lowering the standards of art, was controversial from the beginning since it wanted to dole out art to working class who lacked the leisure and means to enjoy it. The second generation Pre-Raphaelite artists turned away from aesthetic democratization and catered to the demands of affluent bourgeois clients. Pre-Raphaelite painters identified with and worshipped Keats who, they thought, sought to improve himself through self-education and craved for fame. The image of Keats as a defiant, precocious genius fighting for the autonomy of art was constructed from a series of Keats's biographies published in the Victorian era. While Keats's poetry embodies the spirit of Revolution, it is also rich in sensual imagery with frequent allusions to Greek mythology and medieval literature, which is one reason why the second generation Pre-Raphaelites preferred Keats's poetry to Wordsworth's for their subject matters. Keats's Isabella; or, The Pot of Basil, based on the story from Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron, is not limited to the convention of romance genre as it encompasses the themes of class conflicts, greedy capitalists, and British middle-class women confined at home. Despite the fact that Isabella; or, The Pot of Basil was not positively received because of its alleged mawkishness, it was one of the most popular poems among Pre-Raphaelites along with The Eve of St. Agnes. The first generation Pre-Raphaelites who advocated aesthetic democratization focused on class conflicts, attacking avaricious industrialists. Millais's Lorenzo and Isabella, which underscored the conflicts between Lorenzo and Isabella's brothers, is representative of the period. The second generation Pre-Raphaelites were more interested in Isabella's grotesque love for Lorenzo, whose head is buried in the pot of basil. Keats emphasized Isabella's abnormal psychology after her sexual desire and maternity are frustrated. However, most of the second generation Pre-Raphaelite paintings, including Hunt's Isabella and The Pot of Basil, ignored Keats's intention and portrayed Isabella as a luxurious decoration for bourgeois home, thereby making her the object of sexual desire for bourgeois male clients.