The Aesthetic Movement
The Aesthetic Movement began in France with Théophile Gautier at the end of the
19th century.
It was a reaction against the materialism and the strict moral code of the burgeoisie.
Its main principle was “art for art’s sake”, according to which art shouldn’t have any
moral purpose, but was an end in itself and aimed at the contemplation of beauty.
So artists weren’t interested in political and social issues, but isolated themselves in
an ideal world of art and beauty.
In England, the main theorist of the Aesthetic Movement was Walter Pater. His
books became very famous among the young artists. He rejected religious faith, he
thought that life should be lived “as a work of art”, and that man’s primary aim was
the experience of pleasure.
This was a subversive message, in contrast to the strict moral code of the Victorian
middle-classes. Differently from the previous generation, the Aesthetes didn’t
criticize contemporary society, but simply avoided it. They didn’t want to mix with
the masses and despised the ugliness of contemporary industrial society.
They believed that art shouldn’t have any didactic or moral aim.
Decadent Art and Aestheticism in Europe
There are similarities between the works written by artists in different parts of
Europe at the end of the 19th century. Aestheticism was also called
“Decadentism”.
The first writer who described a “decadent artist” was the French novelist
Huysmans. Des Esseintes, the protagonist of his novel A rébours, is a typical
bohémien. He is disgusted by the vulgarity of modern life and decides to live
alone and devote himself to the cult of beauty and pleasure.
Similarly, Dorian Gray, the protagonists of Wilde’s novel The Picture of Dorian
Gray, is a typical dandy who wants to tranform every experience of his life into
an aethetic experience, following only beauty and pleasure.
Also Andrea Sperelli, protagonist of the novel Il piacere by D’Annunzio, makes of
his life a work of art, surrounding himself with beautiful objects and thus
marking his superiority from the masses.
Main features of their literary language: evocative use of the language of the
senses, excessive attention to the self, hedonistic attitude, perversity in subject
matter, disenchantment with contemporary society, absence of didactic aim.
The Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood
The origins of the English Aesthetic movement can be traced back to the Pre-
Raphaelite Brotherhood. It was a group of seven art students who joined
together to produce an artistic revolution of their own: to free British painting
from the conventions of the day. They rejected the academic taste and the
ugliness of the contemporary industrial world.
They were particularly inspired by the early Italian painters and poets and
wanted to go back to the purity and simplicity of the Italian art of the 13th
and 14th centuries, before Raphael.
Its main representatives were: William Hunt, John Millais, Dante Gabriel
Rossetti and his follower Edward Burne-Jones, and also William Morris, who
founded the Arts and Crafts movement. His firm designed and manufactured
different objects for interior design, rejecting the products of the new
industrial machinery and reviving handicraft and simple decoration.
The Pre-Raphaelites took inspiration from fascinating stories that they found in books,
poems and real life, so the subjects of their paintings often came from medieval
myths and legends, Shakespeare’s works or contemporary novelists.
They were fascinated by nature and they liked to paint directly from the motif in
natural light in brilliant, clear colours. They also liked to use the symbolism of
flowers.
Ophelia by John Everett Millais, 1851-52
The Lady of Shalott (1888) by John William Waterhouse
The story of The Lady of Shalott is taken from a poem by the Victorian poet
Alfred Tennyson , who was inspired by a medieval story where the
protagonist is a woman who falls in love with Lancelot (one of King
Arthur’s knights), but because of a curse she is forced to live as an outcast
in a tower and to see the world only through a mirror. One day, however,
seeing Lancelot outside, she decides to risk her life and she leaves the
tower, takes a boat and goes towards Camelot, singing a sad song and
dying while singing
Waterhouse decided to paint this scene.
The Pre-Raphaelites were attracted by tragic love stories, or impossible love
stories, which sometimes mirrored what happened in real life in Victorian
society, when marriages between people belonging to different social
classes were considered unacceptable and this encouraged illicit
relationships.
Paolo and Francesca da Rimini (1855) by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
This painting depicts a young couple at a
moment of emotional crisis. The male
figure is barely visible, his head bent over
the young woman's left hand. The woman,
tears slightly overflowing, is looking down
at fallen blossoms, suggesting the end of
spring and of early young love.
It shows a distinctly Pre-Raphelite style in
which a soft approach to nature and
femininity is found. Bright colors and red-
haired women as well as an emphasis on
nature and symbolism characterize this
style which can be found in the late 1800s
as a response to industrialization.
April Love (1855 -56) by Arthur Hughes
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
D.G. Rossetti was born in London, he was the son of an Italian intellectual (a
member of the “Carbonari” who emigrated to London as a political refugee
and then became professor of Italian literature at university).
Rossetti founded the Pre-Raphaelite brotherhood with a group of other
artists but from the late 1850s he created a more individual art, now
generally known as symbolism. Rossetti’s works are noted both for their
religious symbolism and for their sensual atmosphere. The women in his
paintings always have a distant, melancholic look which expresses at the
same time purity and sensuality.
La Ghirlandata, 1873, Oil on Canvas. Guildhall Art Gallery, Corporation of
London.
La Ghirlandata, 1873, Oil on
Canvas. Guildhall Art Gallery,
Corporation of London.
La Ghirlandata: in the middle of the picture there is a beautiful young woman
with blue eyes, red hair and a pale complexion. She’s playing a harp. The
instrument is decorated with blue wings and a garland made of roses and
honeysuckle.
In the background there are two angels’ faces and the composition appears to
be crowded. Rossetti described it as “the greenest picture in the world”. In
fact the woman is dressed in green and sorrounded by green plants. The
woman combines an expression of entrancement with an intense sensuality,
in a dreamy atmosphere.
Rossetti always put some symbols in his paintings: here the blue wings on the
harp are symbolic for the flight of time and the flowers suggest sexual
attraction.
William Morris (1834 – 1896)
William Morris was educated at Oxford University and then
apprenticed to an architect. In 1861 he formed a decorating firm
with D.G. Rossetti, E. Burne-jones and other pre-Raphaelite
painters. They advocated the renewed use of handicraft and
simple decoration in reaction to industrial machinery. The firm
designed and manufactured different objects for interior
designs: stained glass, hand-painted tiles, tapestries, wallpapers,
rugs and carpets.
In 1875 Morris became the sole director of the firm and its name
was changed to “Morris and Co.”
William Morris’s main motifs were leaves, flowers, fruit and birds, arranged
following curved lines. He did experiments in the use of natural vegetable
dyes. He mainly drew his subjects from nature. The repeat pattern recurs in
wallpapers, chintzes and tapestries and creates a sensation of movement and
complexity. Morris’s natural images have a symbolic connotation. For example
the rose bushes symbolise beauty constantly menaced by decay and death,
fruits are symbols of temptation, desire, passion and loss.
Morris pursued an ideal of art in which the maker derived pleasure from his
work and was able to convey the same pleasure to the viewer, while he
rejected the alienating work in the assembly lines of the new factories.
One of his most famous maxims is : “have nothing in your houses that you do
not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful”.
