AESTHETICISM

Walter Pater (1839-1894)

Was the theorist of the
Aesthetic Movement in England

His masterpieces

Were immediately successful with the young
because of their subversive and "demoralising" message

"Studies in the History
of the Renaissance" (1873)

"Marius the Epicurean" (1885)

Had a deep influence on the artists and
the writers of the 1890s

Evocative use of the language of sense

Excessive attention to the self

Hedonistic attitude

Perversity in subject metter

Disenchantment with contemporary society

Absence of any didactic aim

Theory

Reject the religious faith

Art is the only certain

Life as a "work of art"

Life should be lived in the spirit of art

Intense experiences

Feeling all kind of sensations

Feeling great sensations

Sense of the "attreactive" and the "gracious"

Art

Not referred to life

Not moralised

Not didactic

Journal

"The Yellow Book"

Was a leading British journal of the 1890s which was associated with Aestheticism,

Artists

Were seen as the transcribers of their
percepition/sense of the world

Oscar Wilde

Was, in his twenties, an
exemplary Aesthete