Art Criticism - The State University of New York
Art Criticism - The State University of New York
Art Criticism - The State University of New York
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Guilt By Association: Gustave Moreau,<br />
<strong>The</strong> Unwilling Decadent<br />
Mary Cullinane<br />
Do not fear to rely on the masters: you will never get lost.<br />
Gustave Moreau<br />
<strong>The</strong> only possible error in art is imitation; it infringes the law <strong>of</strong> time, which is<br />
the Law.<br />
Albert Gleizes and Jean Metzinger,<br />
Cubism<br />
Gustave Moreau is generally accepted as an established Acadertty<br />
painter, yet he became the darling <strong>of</strong> the decadent literary movement infin-desiecle<br />
France. He achieved his first major popular acclaim following the publication<br />
<strong>of</strong> J.K. Huysmans' Against the Grain, the manifesto <strong>of</strong> decadence, in<br />
1874. <strong>The</strong> decadent writers <strong>of</strong> the fin-de-siecle had a highly developed aesthetic<br />
sense and <strong>of</strong>ten assumed the role <strong>of</strong> the dandy. This paper examines the<br />
character <strong>of</strong> the dandy and his contemporary background. <strong>The</strong> treatises <strong>of</strong><br />
decadence as expounded in Against the Grain will be elaborated in order to<br />
establish the basic tenets <strong>of</strong> decadence. <strong>The</strong> art <strong>of</strong> Gustave Moreau will 6e<br />
evaluated according to them. <strong>The</strong> hindsight <strong>of</strong> a century has proved invaluable<br />
in this judgment process, due to the extended and repetitious nature <strong>of</strong><br />
the evolutionary cycle <strong>of</strong> art.<br />
I. THE NATURE OF THE DECADENT AESTHETE<br />
Who were these decadent aesthetes common to literary circles <strong>of</strong> the<br />
fin-de-siecle? <strong>The</strong>y derived from the mid-nineteenth century French Dandy,<br />
who in turn was a descendant <strong>of</strong> the English original, Beau Brummell. Dandyism<br />
infin-de-siecle France developed into an aesthetic and philosophical movement.<br />
Baudelaire, the icon <strong>of</strong> mid-nineteenth century dandyism, espouses the<br />
virtues <strong>of</strong> dandyism in his essay <strong>The</strong> Painter <strong>of</strong> Modem Life (1863). He wrote<br />
that the Dandy belonged to "a new kind <strong>of</strong> aristocracy."l He had nostalgia for<br />
a lost era and longed for the simple, clear-cut class divisions <strong>of</strong> earlier times.<br />
While "Dandyism may reinvigorate or even improve upon a waning aristocracy,"<br />
he regarded Dandyism as "the last burst <strong>of</strong> heroism in the decadent<br />
vol. 17, no. 1 55