Sir Mario Praz (; 6 September 1896,

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– 23 March 1982, Rome) was an

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critic A critic is a person who communicates an assessment and an opinion of various forms of creative works such as Art criticism, art, Literary criticism, literature, Music journalism, music, Film criticism, cinema, Theater criticism, theater, Fas ...

of art and literature, and a scholar of

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. His best-known book, ''The Romantic Agony'' (1933), was a comprehensive survey of the decadent, erotic and morbid themes that characterised European authors of the late 18th and 19th centuries (see ''

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'' for a reference of one of his chapters). The book was written and published first in Italian as ' in 1930; and the most recent edition was published in

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by Sansoni in 1996.

Biography

Praz was the son of Luciano Praz (died 1900), a bank clerk, and his wife, the former Giulia Testa di Marsciano (died 1931), daughter of Count Alcibiade Testa di Marsciano. His stepfather was Carlo Targioni (died 1954), a physician, whom his mother married in 1912. He studied at the

University of Bologna The University of Bologna (, abbreviated Unibo) is a Public university, public research university in Bologna, Italy. Teaching began around 1088, with the university becoming organised as guilds of students () by the late 12th century. It is the ...

(1914–15), received a law degree from the University of Rome (1918), and received a doctorate in literature from the

University of Florence The University of Florence ( Italian: ''Università degli Studi di Firenze'') (in acronym UNIFI) is an Italian public research university located in Florence, Italy. It comprises 12 schools and has around 50,000 students enrolled. History The f ...

(1920). Praz married, on 17 March 1934 (separated 1942, divorced 1947), Vivyan Leonora Eyles (1909–1984), an English-literature lecturer at the

University of Liverpool The University of Liverpool (abbreviated UOL) is a Public university, public research university in Liverpool, England. Founded in 1881 as University College Liverpool, Victoria University (United Kingdom), Victoria University, it received Ro ...

whom Praz met during his time there as a special lecturer in Italian studies. She was a daughter of the English novelist and feminist writer Margaret Leonora Eyles (1889–1960), who addressed to her in 1941 an autobiographical work entitled ''For My Enemy Daughter''. She remarried in 1948, as her second husband, art historian Wolfgang Fritz Volbach. Praz and Eyles had one child, a daughter, Lucia Praz (born 1938). Praz's only other known romantic attachment was to an Anglo-Italian woman named Perla Cacciguerra, whom he met in 1953 and called "Diamante" in the book ''The House of Life''. Praz's residence in Palazzo Primoli in Rome has been turned into the Museo Mario Praz. In

Orhan Pamuk Ferit Orhan Pamuk (born 7 June 1952; ) is a Turkish novelist, screenwriter, academic, and recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature. One of Turkey's most prominent novelists, he has sold over 13 million books in 63 languages, making him ...

's novel ''The Museum of Innocence'' it is mentioned as "the most magnificent writer's museum I had seen".

Life and writings

Praz was a well-respected Italian-born art critic and scholar of the English language. He taught Italian Studies at the

Victoria University of Manchester The Victoria University of Manchester, usually referred to as simply the University of Manchester, was a university in Manchester, England. It was founded in 1851 as Owens College. In 1880, the college joined the federal Victoria University. A ...

between 1932 and 1934. He then went on to teach English Literature at the University of Rome from 1934, until he retired in 1966. In 1962, he was knighted by

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 19268 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until Death and state funeral of Elizabeth II, her death in 2022. ...

and became a

Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

. Though Praz is perhaps best known for his writings in the English literary field, he has made strong contributions to the concepts, writings and perception of both interior design and interior decoration. The concepts that were presented in his ''The Romantic Agony'' have been shaped into his design and art criticism. This writing style has been successfully employed in Praz's two most noteworthy design books, ''The House of Life'' and ''An Illustrated History in Interior Design''. These works highlight his theories of the interiority of a space, and reveal his concepts of how a person inhabits the interior and how they shape it to make it their own. His ground-breaking work ''Studies in seventeenth-century imagery'', first published in 1939 and reissued many times since, is one of the first attempts to produce a systematic catalogue and analysis of the early modern allegorical genres of the

emblem An emblem is an abstract art, abstract or representational pictorial image that represents a concept, like a moral truth, or an allegory, or a person, like a monarch or saint. Emblems vs. symbols Although the words ''emblem'' and ''symbol'' ...

and the

personal device A heraldic badge, emblem, impresa, device, or personal device worn as a badge indicates allegiance to, or the property of, an individual, family or corporate body. Medieval forms are usually called a livery badge, and also a cognizance. They are ...

Design writings

Praz has had a profound impact not only on writings about interior design and decoration but also on the history, and the development, of design. The work, ''An Illustrated History of Interior Decoration from Pompeii to Art Nouveau'' has allowed the creation of a photographic album to be made, "Praz's rediscovery of this minor but fascinating art . . . was a revelation, and the historic no less than aesthetic importance of the subject is now recognised by a group of informed collectors". His work "provides a selection of visual representations of domesticity from ancient Greece through to the Art Nouveau, and a commentary upon them." The images show the interior decor and design of Greek, Roman, Medieval, Renaissance and Victorian Homes in Europe between the period of 1770 and 1860. The sketches, paintings, and watercolour representations capture the spatial qualities and features of the interiority and decoration of the overall space. The images record accuracy to the shape of the room, from the carpet to the furniture, pictures, fabrics, wall colour, the hang of curtains and the placement of light. Praz's work has documented all these interior characteristics that would have shaped the space for the residents in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This work has had a strong contribution to the impact of not only researching the interiority of a space, but also providing a new groundwork for recording the history of an interior. Further, Praz has made an influential impact on the way interior design has been studied and documented since the mid-twentieth century. He helped foster the change in the growth of historical design studies and research. His work, ''An Illustrated History of Interior Decoration'', "merges a traditional art-historical approach with philosophical musings about the role of interior assemblage".Baxter P, 1991, "Thirty Years of Growth in the Literature of Interior Design", ''Journal of Design History'', vol 4, no. 4, pp. 242–3. Praz was one of the first critics to look into the links between the contexts of art history, and link it to the interior workings of a space. He was one of the first designers to note that furnishings were a representation of the individual. This is shown in this writing as he states "furnishings are tangible artefacts of social history". The concept of the need for furnishing is addressed in the initial stages of this publication. Praz sees the house and its interiority as "a continuum, which is always in need of furnishing".Rice, "Thirty Years of Growth in Interior Design" p. 288 Through the grounding of this concept, "Praz takes the idea of the inhabiting subject, and the interior and its decoration, as pre-given concepts for the construction of this history, not ones that have emerged out of particular historical conditions", thus meaning that the furniture, the home and the interior all act as a "representational evocation" of the individual that resides in the home, reflecting the "character or the personality of the occupant". Ultimately, Praz challenges the concept of interior design and decoration, highlighting how the individual completely influences how the layout and decoration of their house will be presented. The concept that the interior is a personal reflection of the individual is personally manifested in his spatial autobiography ''The House of Life''. The concepts and documentation style that was presented in ''An Illustrated History of Interior Decoration'' have been continued and challenged through later design writings by other critics and historians. ''The House of Life'' is the easiest way to understand the concept of the interior representing the individual. Praz's work allows audiences to delve into the personal interior scope of his apartment by providing a "room by room description, of (the) flat in Rome in which he lived for thirty years".Hough, H., 1965, "Reviewed works: ''The House of Life'', Mario Praz", ''The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism'', vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 317–8 The thorough recount of the interiority of this space "shows the apartment (in a manner of a television program), providing autobiographical accounts of associations with furnishings". This autobiographical recount chronicles architecture and orchestrates the interior, giving the reader a full account of his home and "offering us the chance to follow the true routes of privacy, and to recreate the Professor's universe, reduced to the dimensions of the human eye." His writing provides an insight into firstly how he accesses the space in which he lives, and how he inhabits that space. ''The House of Life'' basically mimics the writing style of ''An Illustrated History''. This detailed recount and writing style has been mimicked in subsequent design writing, in order to document every aspect of the interiority of a space. The concept of in art is associated with Praz, who used the term to refer to cluttered visual interior design.

Influences on the future of design journals and design study

The initial findings that are presented in ''An Illustrated History of Interior Decoration'' have made influential impacts on the writings in George Savage’s ''A concise history of Interior Design''. The concepts of linking the interior to social history are basically echoed in Savage’s work. This early influence of Praz’s writing in the mid-1960s continued throughout the remainder of the twentieth century. The concepts that were addressed in Praz’s work ''An Illustrated History of Interior Decoration'' highlight the context of the interior designer, as a profession, in twenty-first-century societies. The work of the interior designer needs to be able to mimic individual needs and wants, so the person can correctly be represented in the interiority of their home. This concept was initially introduced and highlighted by Praz, and this statement allows an insight into how the workings of the interior are conducted.

Critical views on design writing

The varying opinions on Praz's design work can be seen in the writings of

Cyril Connolly Cyril Vernon Connolly CBE (10 September 1903 – 26 November 1974) was an English literary critic and writer. He was the editor of the influential literary magazine ''Horizon (British magazine), Horizon'' (1940–49) and wrote ''Enemies of Pro ...

and

Edmund Wilson Edmund Wilson Jr. (May 8, 1895 – June 12, 1972) was an American writer, literary critic, and journalist. He is widely regarded as one of the most important literary critics of the 20th century. Wilson began his career as a journalist, writing ...

. While Wilson praises Praz’s work as a "masterpiece", Connolly calls ''The House of Life'' "one of the most boring books I have ever read. . . . It's unbelievably exhausting. . . . It has a bravura of boredom, an audacity of ennui that makes one hardly believe one's eyes."

Critical views

In his preface of ''Voce dietro la scena'': ''Un'antologia personale'', Mario Praz shows his peculiar irony and understatement in reporting cases of misquotations and misinterpretations of his studies or his personality abroad. He reports the following facts: In the ''Life and Letters of Sir

Edmund Gosse Sir Edmund William Gosse (; 21 September 184916 May 1928) was an English poet, author and critic. He was strictly brought up in a small Protestant sect, the Plymouth Brethren, but broke away sharply from that faith. His account of his childhood ...

'', Gosse writes in a letter dated 17 November 1923: "Mario Praz is an interesting young professor, a great Swinburnian." In the "Italian Pageant", Derek Patmore states: "Dr. Mario Praz, so long a staunch friend of England."

Charles Du Bos Charles Du Bos (27 October 1882 – 5 August 1939) was a French essayist and critic, known for works including ''Approximations'' (1922–37), a seven-volume collection of essays and letters, and for his ''Journal'', an autobiographical work publ ...

writes in his diary in 1923: "I dined with Abraham and Mario Praz. He is a great friend of

Vernon Lee Vernon Lee was the pseudonym of the French-born British writer Violet Paget (14 October 1856 – 13 February 1935). She is remembered today primarily for her supernatural fiction and her work on aesthetics. An early follower of Walter Pater, ...

." Marie-Anne Comnène, the widow of Benjamin Crémieux, writes in ''Hommes et Mondes'', December 1949: "There were authoritative critics: Marco Pron, Franci, Rossi, count Morra and Mademoiselle Bellonci, great animators of the Pen Club." Marco Pron is actually Mario Praz, misspelt. Charles Jackson says in ''The Outer Edges'': "Mario Praz and

Bertold Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known as Bertolt Brecht and Bert Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a ...

make the best reading in the world for a sexual criminal." Around 1950, Kadar Jennö translated ''Neoclassic Taste'' into Hungarian; he asserted that comrade Praz is a harsh enemy of capitalism. Besides these fun facts, though, Praz has been highly admired in Italy and abroad. Edmund Wilson, in "The Genie of the Via Giulia", wrote that Praz "will come to be known to posterity—so far as a foreigner can judge—as one of the best Italian writers of his time".Edmund Wilson, "The Genie of the via Giulia", in AA. VV., ''Friendship's Garland. Essays presented to Mario Praz'', a cura di V. Gabrieli, Roma, Edizioni di storia e letteratura, 1966, pp. 6–17.

Bibliography

* Praz, Mario. ''La carne, la morte e il diavolo nella letteratura romantica'', 1930 * Praz, Mario. ''The Romantic Agony'' (1933). Translated from the Italian by Angus Davidson ** Book review of ''The Romantic Agony'': V. de Sola Pinto, “''The Romantic Agony'' by Mario Praz, Angus Davidson,” Book Review, ''The Review of English Studies'', 11, 41 (Jan., 1935): 109–111,<>. The reviewer points out that the last chapter was omitted in the English translation as well as the "numerous and excellent illustrations of the Italian original." * Praz, Mario. ''Studies in Seventeenth-Century Imagery'' (London, 1939). 2 vols * Praz, Mario. ''The Hero in Eclipse in Victorian Fiction'' (Oxford, 1956). Translated from the Italian by Angus Davidson * Praz, Mario. ''Mnemosyne: The Parallel Between Literature and the Visual Arts.'' The A.W.Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts 1967. (1967) * Praz, Mario, ed. ''English Miscellany: A Symposium of literature, history and arts''. Reprint of the ''Complete Collection of Articles in English and Selected Writings by Mario Praz'', in 10 vols. (Kyoto
Eureka Press
) * Praz, M., ''An Illustrated History of Interior Decoration from Pompeii to Art Nouveau'', Thames and Hudson (London) 1964 * Praz, M., ''The House of Life'' (translated by Angus Davidson), The Acadine Press, 1964