Christa Giles

of art as a ˝lie.˝ This is not simply the idea that the obvious
is inartistic nor is it merely derived from Baudelaire’s
feeling ˝J’ai tellement la haine du commun que la verité
m’ennuie.˝ 136 In ˝The Decay of Lying,˝ art is perceived as
lying – yet art, Wilde maintains, is truth. Therefore, he
concludes, with a characteristic inversion, lying is the truth.
Wilde’s definition of art as a sort of lie and his
identification of the dandy with the artist gives validity to
the dandy’s philosophy, to his belief that ˝Truth is entirely
and absolutely a matter of style.˝ 137 Further, in Wilde’s
work, the word ˝lying˝ is closely connected with the word
˝insincerity,˝ which is endowed with new meaning: it
becomes ˝a method by which we can multiply our
personalities.˝ 138 The artist/dandy can appear insincere and
mocking, invert accepted social ˝truths˝ because he is not
restricted by any explicit moral code; indeed, he rejects the
prevailing morality. Thus the dandy hides behind a mask
which is both a defense and a challenge. He is superior,
removed from any given situation; he is ˝l’observateur…un
prince qui jouit partout de son incognito.˝ 139 The mask he
wears, paradoxically, like the symbol both reveals and
conceals, and we are reminded that, in Wilde’s view,
˝Beauty is the symbol of symbols,˝ 140 and ˝dandyism is the
assertion of the absolute modernity of Beauty.˝ 141 Thus it is
the act of concealment, the creation of a mask, which is
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