Focus on this artwork and discuss the Consequences.
The effect of the critical comments was to make the Pre-Raphaelite movement famous and to create a debate about the relationship between modernity, realism and medievalism in the arts. The critic John Ruskin supported Millais in letter to the press and in his lecture "Pre-Raphaelitism" despite personally disliking the painting. The painting's use of symbolic realism led to a wider movement in which the choice of composition and theme was combined with detailed observation.
symbolic medievalism John Ruskin realism