Aestheticism

prepared by: Karwan Kareem Third year

Aestheticism
The word means enjoyment and appreciation of beauty. This is a movement which aimed at the enjoyment of art for arts sake, without any reference to its moral effects.

Arnold and Walter

They were two critics in the Victorian age. Arnold was a moralist, he believes in the principle art for lifes sake. Pater as a matter of fact, represents the antithesis to Arnold Art for arts sake. He believes in the cult of beauty, or the enjoyment of beauty for its own sake.

The mottos of aesthetic critics:

1- life is short. 2- life under the shadow of death, so hurry to enjoy. 3- pleasures lie in ones sensations and experiences derived from the beauty. Its the same theme as carpidium in Renaissance. They regarded the worship of beauty as the highest goal of life. Art was divorced from morality, the purpose of art was to impart aesthetic pleasure by the cultivation of beauty.

The aesthetes belief

They believed that the question of virtue or sin in relation to art does not arise. Oscar Wilde, for example, believed that no book is ever moral or immoral; a book can only be well-written or badly written. On the other hand, Pater categorically states that the best criterion for the judgment of a work is the impression of beauty it leaves on the mind. The critics business in his opinion lies in recording his own impressions of a work of art and thus communicating the pleasure which he himself has experienced. He rejects all abstract and philosophical theories, but he prefers the theory of personal impressions the pleasure which one derives from the beauty of a work of art.

The function of aesthetic critic:

1- To experience the characteristic of virtue and beauty. 2- To separate this experience from other elements that are not characteristic. 3- To record his own enjoyment of it for the sake of others.

Pater divided literature into two parts: imaginative literature and literature of facts.

The significant of style in aestheticism

The aesthetes believed that the style in art is more valuable than content. It has a tone, color, and an atmosphere which Pater refers to as the soul of style.

They believed that a great art depends on matter no manner. For the critic, it is worst extreme to neglect the form.