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How could Pre-Raphaelite paintings be realistic even when they used legends or religious stories?

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Painting by Gustave Courbet showing the artist at his easel in a crowded studio, surrounded by figures including a nude model, onlookers, and a child with a white dog. — Realism *The Painter's Studio*, showing Gustave Courbet at the easel, oil on canvas by Courbet, 1854–55; in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood achieved realism in their paintings of legends and religious stories by prioritizing an uncompromising, "truthful" approach to visual representation over the idealized, academic conventions of their time.12

Rather than focusing on the subject matter itself, the group sought to re-create the texture and "feel" of actuality through several key techniques:

Direct Observation: They rejected the "unimaginative" and artificial styles taught at the Royal Academy, instead demanding rigorous study from nature. This included rendering details—such as foreground blades of grass or natural lighting—with near-photographic precision.12
Technical Innovation: Their style featured sharp, brilliant lighting and a clear atmosphere, which helped ground even fantastical or biblical scenes in a tangible, physical reality.13
Sincerity of Treatment: By applying the same level of fidelity and "undistorting" observation to legendary or biblical themes as they did to contemporary life, they stripped away the "pretty-pretty" artifice common in Victorian illustration.23

Ultimately, for the Pre-Raphaelites, the nominal subject was secondary to the effort of capturing the raw, unadorned truth of the natural world, allowing them to treat historical and religious narratives with the same realism as a modern scene.23