This lecture shows how the Pre-Raphaelites took a traditional subject – St. Cecilia – and subverted it. Painting music helped to trigger a broader shift in Victorian art from narrative paintings towards Aestheticism and its focus on abstract beauty, ambiguity, androgony and sensuality.

Suzanne Fagence Cooper studied History at Oxford University and Art History at the Courtald Institute and at Christie’s Education. She is now a Visiting Fellow at the University of York and Research Curator at York Art Gallery.