Show Me Your Body and I’ll Tell You Who You Are: InterPREtation of Three Paintings by John Millais and Gabriel

The aim of this study is to represent the complexity of the human body analysing works of Pre-Raphaelite painters. The author starts with delineation of the beauty canon which has been ruling throughout the centuries and exemplifies how feminist movements moulded societal attitudes towards corporality, to finally focusing the reader’s attention towards three canvas painted by Millais and Rossetti Christ in the House of His Parents, Lady Lilith, and Venus Verticordia. Although realism plays the role of linking all the aforementioned paintings, there exist two extreme models among them. The first concerns the work of Millais, which represents the humiliated, obnoxious and execrable body. The controversy is intensified by the fact that the artist depicts the bodies of the Saint’s Family members, who until this time were identified with purity, good and beauty. The second model appears in the works of Rossetti, who creates a portrayal of the seductive, attractive and self-aware woman. What becomes noticeable is a dependency between objectivness and subjectivity, which merges to have an influence on the coherent creation of the female figure. Disparate perception of Millais’ and Rossetti’s works allows for a comparative analysis and the investigation of whether corporality is able to reflect the human mental condition