The Arcades Project - Operi

the public . .. the mechanism behind our effects? . .. Do we display all the rags,
the paint, the pulleys, the chains, the alterations, the scribbled-over proof sheetsin
short, all the horrors that make up the sanctuary of art?" Ch. B., Oeuvres, vol.
1, p. 582."'" [JS6,4]
Baudelaire as mime: Being as chaste as paper, as sober as water as devout as a
woman at Holy Communion, as harmless as a sacrificial lamb, I would not he
displeased to be taken for a lecher, a drunkard, an infidel, a murderer." Ch. B.,
Oeuvres, vol. 1, p. 582 (Studies for a preface to Les Fleurs du mal).""" [JS6,S]
Solely for the publication of Les Fleurs du mal and Petits Poemes en prose, Baudelaire
sent notices to more than twenty-five periodicals, not counting the newspapers.
[JS6,6]
Baroque detailing of' the female body: '"Le Beau Navire" . To the
contrary: "Tout entiere" . [J56,7]
Allegory:
That it's foolish to build anything on human hearts­
For evct'ything cracks, yes, evell iove and beaut.y,
Till Oblivion flings them into its hod
And gives them over to Eternity!
in his Confession. "309
[J56,8]
Fetish: "who now, from Pit to Empyrean scorned I by all hut me . . I . . . I my
jet-eyed statue, angel with hrazen brows!" C"Je te donne ces vel's. "PIO [J56,9]
"Michelangelo I No man's land where every Hercules I becomes a Christ." ("Les
Phares. "Yl11 [JS6a,l]
"An echo repeated by a thousand labyrinths." CLes Phares. "yll2 [JS6a,2]
"La Muse venal" shows to what degree Baudelaire occasionally saw the publication
of poems as a form of prostitution. [JS6a,3]
Your Christian bloodstream coursing strong I and steadfast as the copious Classical
vein." ("La Muse mHlade. "ym [J56a,4]
In Baudelaire's case, the really decisive indication of class betrayal is not the
integrity which forbade his applying for a govermnent grant but the incompatibility
he felt with the ethos ofjoumalism. [J56a,5]
Allegory views existence, as it does art, under the sign of fragnlentation and ruin.
L'art pour far! erects the kingdom of art outside profane existence. Common to
both is the renunciation of the idea of harmonious totality in which-according