Book contents
- Decadence
- Decadence
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction Decadent Histories
- Chapter 1 Nineteenth-Century Decadence and Neoclassical Aesthetics
- Chapter 2 British Decadence and Renaissance Italy
- Chapter 3 ‘Rather a Delicate Subject’
- Chapter 4 Fighting Like Cats and Dogs
- Chapter 5 Varieties of Decadent Religion
- Chapter 6 The New Woman and Decadent Gender Politics
- Chapter 7 Decadence, Darwinism, Science and Technological Modernity
- Chapter 8 Decadence and Politics
- Chapter 9 Seeds of Discord
- Chapter 10 Decadent Poetics after Swinburne
- Chapter 11 Theatre and Decadence
- Chapter 12 ‘Restless Mystical Ardours’
- Chapter 13 Decadence in Painting
- Chapter 14 Decadent Poetry and Translation
- Chapter 15 Spanish American Literature and the Transatlantic Dimensions of Decadence
- Chapter 16 Decadent America 1890–1930
- Chapter 17 Russian and Czech Decadence
- Chapter 18 A Politics of Modernism in the Poetics of Decadence
- Chapter 19 Camp Modernism and Decadence
- Chapter 20 Making Decadence New
- Chapter 21 Writing Decadent Lives and Letters
- Chapter 22 Decadence in the Time of AIDS
- Index
Chapter 13 - Decadence in Painting
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 September 2020
- Decadence
- Decadence
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction Decadent Histories
- Chapter 1 Nineteenth-Century Decadence and Neoclassical Aesthetics
- Chapter 2 British Decadence and Renaissance Italy
- Chapter 3 ‘Rather a Delicate Subject’
- Chapter 4 Fighting Like Cats and Dogs
- Chapter 5 Varieties of Decadent Religion
- Chapter 6 The New Woman and Decadent Gender Politics
- Chapter 7 Decadence, Darwinism, Science and Technological Modernity
- Chapter 8 Decadence and Politics
- Chapter 9 Seeds of Discord
- Chapter 10 Decadent Poetics after Swinburne
- Chapter 11 Theatre and Decadence
- Chapter 12 ‘Restless Mystical Ardours’
- Chapter 13 Decadence in Painting
- Chapter 14 Decadent Poetry and Translation
- Chapter 15 Spanish American Literature and the Transatlantic Dimensions of Decadence
- Chapter 16 Decadent America 1890–1930
- Chapter 17 Russian and Czech Decadence
- Chapter 18 A Politics of Modernism in the Poetics of Decadence
- Chapter 19 Camp Modernism and Decadence
- Chapter 20 Making Decadence New
- Chapter 21 Writing Decadent Lives and Letters
- Chapter 22 Decadence in the Time of AIDS
- Index
Summary
It is difficult to identify Decadent art in the same manner one can identify Decadent poetry or a Decadent novel. This chapter argues that late nineteenth-century neoclassical British, French Symbolist and Decadent painting were neglected by art historians of the first half of the twentieth century, disparaged for their lack of formal innovation, with their Decadent subject matter – in particular its investment in violence and eroticism – largely neglected. Painters such as Lawrence Alma-Tadema and Frederic Leighton were acceptable to a late Victorian art public because their depictions of violent death and sexual dissidence were anchored in the classical past and myth. The nude, when linked to religion, still had the capacity to outrage Victorians, as did artists like Félicien Rops, whose darker, less idealized depiction of sensuality marked them as Decadent. These anxieties came together in responses to depictions of Salome, the ultimate Decadent femme fatale.
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- Information
- DecadenceA Literary History, pp. 234 - 253Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020