Interest in early Art was growing in England in the 1840s, led by Prince Albert (who was connecting artists in the field). Significantly, in about 1848, Ruskin, Prince Albert and others formed 'The Arundel Society' to record and reproduce early paintings so that "the greater familiarity with the severer and purer style of earlier Art would divert public taste from works that were meretricious and puerile, and elevate the tone of our National School of Painting & Sculpture".

The young Pre-Raphaelites had little knowledge of early art, but saw a book of engravings of frescoes attributed to Benozzo Gozzoli (c.1421-1497) and others in the Campo Santo, Pisa-which they much admired.