Concetti Chiave
- In the late 19th century, Marx and Engels challenged middle-class values with new theories opposing capitalism and Victorian moral standards.
- Walter Pater's hedonistic philosophy emphasized art as a source of intense sensations, rejecting its traditional didactic role.
- Aestheticism, embracing the disengagement from societal norms, influenced artists to prioritize beauty and sensory experiences over practicality.
- The slogan "Art for Art’s sake" encapsulated the aesthetic movement's belief in art's intrinsic value, separate from moral or social functions.
- Oscar Wilde epitomized the culmination of Aestheticism in Victorian England, while in Italy, the movement was known as Decadentismo.
What new theories challenge the middle class?
In the second half of the 19th century the dominant features of the middle class (capitalism, economy, Positivism in Philosophy and Naturalism in Art) were hampered by new theories and ideas, especially from the philosophers Marx and Engels and from the new movement of Aestheticism, based on the disengagement from all the social and moral Victorian issues, tat usually repressed human instincts.
Walter Pater and the philosophy of hedonism
In 1873 Walter Pater published a collection of critical essays titled “The Renaissance Studies in Art and Poetry”, in which he says that art didn’t have any didactic function, but it should be seen as a source of deep and intense moments of sensations. For Pater the only way to combat meaninglessness of existence is to live hedonistically. His philosophy appealed to a group of artists, the aesthetes, who stated that the cult of beauty was the central factor in life and that “Life should copy Art and not the opposite”.
Aestheticism and its impact on art
The aesthetic artist detests the values and hypocrisy of the middle classes and he keeps away from the masses and tries to live a life of refined sensations. They argued that Art had no practical purpose and coined the slogan/battle cry “Art for Art’s sake”.
The culmination of Aestheticism in Victorian England was reached with Oscar Wilde.
In Italy the Aestheticism Movement was called Decadentismo.
Domande da interrogazione
- How did new theories in the 19th century challenge the middle class?
- What was Walter Pater's contribution to the philosophy of Aestheticism?
- What was the core belief of the Aestheticism movement regarding art?
In the late 19th century, the middle class faced challenges from new theories by philosophers like Marx and Engels, and the Aestheticism movement, which rejected Victorian social and moral norms, emphasizing human instincts and disengagement from societal issues.
Walter Pater, in his 1873 work "The Renaissance Studies in Art and Poetry," argued that art should be a source of intense sensations rather than having a didactic function, promoting a hedonistic lifestyle to combat life's meaninglessness, which influenced the aesthetes.
The Aestheticism movement believed that art should exist for its own sake, without practical purpose, encapsulated in the slogan "Art for Art’s sake," and rejected middle-class values, focusing on refined sensations and beauty.
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