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Aesthete
Aestheticism (also known as the aesthetic movement) was an art movement in the late 19th century that valued the appearance of literature, music, fonts and the arts over their functions. According to Aestheticism, art should be produced to be beautiful, rather than to teach a lesson, create a parallel, or perform another didactic purpose, a sentiment expressed in the slogan "art for art's sake." Aestheticism flourished in the 1870s and 1880s, gaining prominence and the support of notable writers such as Walter Pater and Oscar Wilde. Aestheticism challenged the values of mainstream Victorian culture, as many Victorians believed that literature and art fulfilled important ethical roles. Writing in ''The Guardian'', Fiona McCarthy states that "the aesthetic movement stood in stark and sometimes shocking contrast to the crass materialism of Britain in the 19th century." Aestheticism was named by the critic Walter Hamilton in ''The Aesthetic Movement in England'' in 1882. By ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Peacock Room
''Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room'' (better known as ''The Peacock Room'') is a work of interior decorative art created by James McNeill Whistler and Thomas Jeckyll, translocated to the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Whistler painted the paneled room in a unified palette of blue-greens with over- glazing and metallic gold leaf. Painted between 1876 and 1877, it now is considered one of the greatest surviving Aesthetic interiors, and best examples of the Anglo-Japanese style. History ''The Peacock Room'' was originally designed to serve as the dining room in the townhouse located at in the neighbourhood of Kensington in London, and owned by the British shipping magnate Frederick Richards Leyland. Leyland engaged the British architect Richard Norman Shaw to remodel and redecorate his home. Shaw entrusted the remodelling of the dining room to Thomas Jeckyll, another British architect experienced in the Anglo-Japanese style. Jeckyll conceived the dining ro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
German Romanticism
German Romanticism () was the dominant intellectual movement of German-speaking countries in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, influencing philosophy, aesthetics, literature, and criticism. Compared to English Romanticism, the German variety developed relatively early, and, in the opening years, coincided with Weimar Classicism (1772–1805). The early period, roughly 1797 to 1802, is referred to as ''Frühromantik'' or Jena Romanticism. The philosophers and writers central to the movement were Wilhelm Heinrich Wackenroder (1773–1798), Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling (1775–1854), Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834), Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel (1772–1829), August Wilhelm Schlegel (1767–1845), Ludwig Tieck (1773–1853), and Friedrich von Hardenberg (Novalis) (1772–1801). The early German Romantics strove to create a new synthesis of art, philosophy, and science, by viewing the Middle Ages as a simpler period of integrated culture; however, the German ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Benjamin Constant
Henri-Benjamin Constant de Rebecque (25 October 1767 – 8 December 1830), or simply Benjamin Constant, was a Swiss and French political thinker, activist and writer on political theory and religion. A committed republican from 1795, Constant backed the coup d'état of 18 Fructidor (4 September 1797) and the following one on 18 Brumaire (9 November 1799). He became the leader of the Liberal opposition in 1800, during the Consulate. Having upset Napoleon and left France to go to Switzerland then to the Kingdom of Saxony, Constant nonetheless sided with him during the Hundred Days, drafting the Charter of 1815, and became politically active again during the Bourbon Restoration. He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1818 and remained in office until his death in 1830. As the head of the Liberal opposition, known as ''Indépendants'', Constant was one of the most notable orators of the Chamber as a proponent of the parliamentary system. During the July Revolution, he wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Angela Leighton
Angela Leighton, FBA (born 23 February 1954) is a British literary scholar and poet, who specialises in Victorian and twentieth-century English literature. Since 2006, she has been a Senior Research Fellow at Trinity College, Cambridge. Previously, from 1979 to 2006, she taught at the University of Hull, rising to be Professor of English. Early life and education Leighton was born on 23 February 1954 in Wakefield, Yorkshire, England, to the composer Kenneth Leighton and Lydia Leighton (''née'' Vignapiano). She studied at St Hugh's College, Oxford, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1976 and a Master of Letters (MLitt) degree in 1981. Academic career In 1979, Leighton joined the English Department of the University of Hull. She was a lecturer from 1979 to 1993, a senior lecturer from 1993 to 1995, Reader in English from 1995 to 1997, and Professor of English from 1997 to 2006. In 2006, she moved to the University of Cambridge where she is a Senior Research ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Victor Cousin
Victor Cousin (; ; 28 November 179214 January 1867) was a French philosopher. He was the founder of " eclecticism", a briefly influential school of French philosophy that combined elements of German idealism and Scottish Common Sense Realism. As the administrator of public instruction for over a decade, Cousin also had an important influence on French educational policy. Biography Early years The son of a watchmaker, he was born in Paris, in the Quartier Saint-Antoine. At the age of ten he was sent to the local grammar school, the Lycée Charlemagne, where he studied until he was eighteen. ''Lycées'' being organically linked to the University of France and its Faculties since their Napoleonic institution (the ''baccalauréat'' was awarded by juries made of university professors) Cousin was "crowned" in the ancient hall of the Sorbonne for a Latin oration he wrote which owned him a first prize at the ''concours général'', a competition between the best pupils at ''lycé ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Art For Art's Sake
Art for art's sake—the usual English rendering of (), a French slogan from the latter half of the 19th century—is a phrase that expresses the philosophy that 'true' art is utterly independent of all social values and utilitarian functions, be they didactic, moral, or political. Such works are sometimes described as '' autotelic'' (from Greek: ''autoteles'', 'complete in itself'), a concept also applied to "inner-directed" or "self-motivated" persons. The phrase is sometimes used commercially. A Latin version of this phrase, (), is used as a motto by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio, appearing in the film scroll around the roaring head of Leo the Lion in its logo. History The phrase "'" had been used by Parisian intellectuals since the beginning of the 19th century, but it was Théophile Gautier (1811–1872) who first fully articulated its current metaphysical meaning in the prefaces of his 1832 poetry volume ''Albertus'' and 1835 novel ''Mademoiselle de Maupin''. The p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oxford
Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, oldest university in the English-speaking world; it has buildings in every style of Architecture of England, English architecture since late History of Anglo-Saxon England, Anglo-Saxon. Oxford's industries include motor manufacturing, education, publishing, science, and information technologies. Founded in the 8th century, it was granted city status in 1542. The city is located at the confluence of the rivers Thames (locally known as the Isis) and River Cherwell, Cherwell. It had a population of in . It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. History The history of Oxford in England dates back to its original settlement in the History of Anglo-Saxon England, Saxon period. The name � ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ruth ApRoberts
Ruth apRoberts (1919 – March 26, 2006) was a Canadian scholar of Victorian and religious literature. Her work focused on 19th-century British literature as it intersected with philosophical issues and spiritual traditions. Biography Born as Ruth Heyer in 1919 in Vancouver, British Columbia, she received her bachelor's degree from the University of British Columbia and her master's degree from UC Berkeley. After raising her four children, she received her PhD in English from UCLA. She was the widow of Robert apRoberts, a scholar of Welsh descent who taught medieval literature at California State University in Northridge. At the University of California in Riverside, Ruth apRoberts held the positions of Graduate Advisor and Chair of the English Department. She taught courses in Victorian literature, the Aesthetic Movement, and the Bible as literature. She held a Guggenheim Fellowship (1978–79). She was awarded the UCR Distinguished Teaching Award in 1977, and the Distingu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sartor Resartus
''Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh in Three Books'' is a novel by the Scottish people, Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher Thomas Carlyle, first published as a serial in ''Fraser's Magazine'' in November 1833 – August 1834. The novel purports to be a commentary on the thought and early life of a German philosopher called Diogenes Teufelsdröckh (which translates as 'Zeus-born Devil's-dung'), author of a tome entitled ''Clothes: Their Origin and Influence''. Teufelsdröckh's Transcendentalist musings are mulled over by a sceptical English Reviewer (referred to as Editor) who also provides fragmentary biographical material on the philosopher. The work is a parody, in part of Hegel and more generally of German Idealism. Background Archibald MacMechan surmised that the novel's invention had three literary sources. The first of these was ''A Tale of a Tub'' by Jonathan Swift, whom Carlyle intensely admired in his college years, even going by the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Critical And Miscellaneous Essays
''Critical and Miscellaneous Essays'' is the title of a collection of reprinted reviews and other magazine pieces by the Scottish people, Scottish essayist, historian and philosopher Thomas Carlyle. Along with ''Sartor Resartus'' and ''The French Revolution: A History, The French Revolution'' it was one of the books that made his name. Its subject matter ranges from literary criticism (especially of German literature) to biography, history and social commentary. These essays have been described as "Intriguing in their own right as specimens of graphic and original nonfiction prose…indispensable for understanding the development of Carlyle's mind and literary career", and the scholar Angus Ross has noted that the review-form displays in the highest degree Carlyle's "discursiveness, allusiveness, argumentativeness, and his sense of playing the prophet's part." Publication Carlyle earned his living during the late 1820s and early 1830s as a reviewer and essayist, contributing to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thomas Carlyle
Thomas Carlyle (4 December 17955 February 1881) was a Scottish essayist, historian, and philosopher. Known as the "Sage writing, sage of Chelsea, London, Chelsea", his writings strongly influenced the intellectual and artistic culture of the Victorian era. Carlyle was born in Ecclefechan, a village in Dumfriesshire. He attended the University of Edinburgh where he excelled in mathematics and invented the Carlyle circle. After finishing the arts course, he prepared to become a minister in the Burgher (Church history), Burgher Church while working as a schoolmaster. He quit these and several other endeavours before settling on literature, writing for the ''Edinburgh Encyclopædia'' and working as a translator. He initially gained prominence in English-language literary circles for his extensive writing on German Romanticism, German Romantic literature and philosophy. These themes were explored in his first major work, a semi-autobiographical philosophical novel entitled ''Sartor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Friedrich Schiller
Johann Christoph Friedrich von Schiller (, short: ; 10 November 17599 May 1805) was a German playwright, poet, philosopher and historian. Schiller is considered by most Germans to be Germany's most important classical playwright. He was born in Marbach to a devoutly Protestant family. Initially intended for the priesthood, in 1773 he entered a military academy in Stuttgart and ended up studying medicine. His first play, ''The Robbers'', was written at this time and proved very successful. After a brief stint as a regimental doctor, he left Stuttgart and eventually wound up in Weimar. In 1789, he became professor of History and Philosophy at Jena, where he wrote historical works. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller developed a productive, if complicated, friendship with the already famous and influential Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. They frequently discussed issues concerning aesthetics, and Schiller encouraged Goethe to finish works that he had le ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
