Hunt formed the Pre-Raphaelite movement in 1848, after meeting the poet and artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti. With John Everett Millais, they sought to revitalise art. They favoured the detailed observation of the natural world, in a spirit of devotion to thetruth. This almost religious approach was influenced by the spiritual qualities of mediaeval art. It was in opposition to the rationalism of the Renaissance, as in Raphael. 