Pre-Raphaelite

[pree-raf-ee-uh-lahyt, -rey-fee-] /priˈræf i əˌlaɪt, -ˈreɪ fi-/
noun
1.
any of a group of English artists (Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood) formed in 1848, and including Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, who aimed to revive the style and spirit of the Italian artists before the time of Raphael.
adjective
2.
of, pertaining to, or characteristic of the Pre-Raphaelites.
Origin
1840-50; pre- + Raphael + -ite1
Related forms
Pre-Raphaelitism, noun
British Dictionary definitions for Pre-Raphaelite

Pre-Raphaelite

/ˌpriːˈræfəlaɪt/
noun
1.
a member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, an association of British painters and writers including Rossetti, Holman Hunt, and Millais, founded in 1848 to combat the shallow conventionalism of academic painting and revive the fidelity to nature and the vivid realistic colour that they considered typical of Italian painting before Raphael
adjective
2.
of, in the manner of, or relating to Pre-Raphaelite painting and painters
Derived Forms
Pre-Raphaelitism, noun
Word Origin and History for Pre-Raphaelite
n., adj.

c.1848, in reference to the "brotherhood" (founded 1847) of Holman Hunt, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, and others (seven in all) who, encouraged by Ruskin, sought to revive the naturalistic spirit of art in the age before Raphael Sanzio (1483-1520).