Preview

Art for Art's Sake

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
998 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Art for Art's Sake
Ivette M. López

The Value of Art: A study of John Ruskin and Oscar Wilde’s Views on Art

In the late nineteenth century a movement known as “Art for Art’s Sake” occurred, which consists of the appreciation of art for what it truly is; just art. At that time many critics tried to find moral and intellectual meanings within works of art. Many artists united to defend art, two authors who defend the concept of art are John Ruskin and Oscar Wilde. In his work From The Stones of Venice, John Ruskin exults and admires gothic architecture because its gives the artist the freedom of creativity and self-expression. In his preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde alike Ruskin defends the concept that art is “useless” and that it must be admired for what it is, which is just simply art. The following goes into more detail on the ideas Ruskin and Wilde have on art.

In From the Stones of Venice [The Savageness of Gothic Architecture], John Ruskin presents his fondness for Gothic architecture because of the freedom it gives to man, he also points out that he finds southern Europe more appealing than Northern Europe because it is darker. In the following, Ruskin presents the system of architectural ornaments; in which he particularly prefers revolutionary ornaments because there is no difference between the architect and the workers and so they are all equal. The following passage presents each system:

The systems of architectural ornament, properly so called, might be divided into three:1. Servile ornament, in which the execution or power of the inferior workman is entirely subjected to the intellect of the higher; 2. Constitutional ornament, in which the executive inferior power is, to a certain point, emancipated and independent, having a will of its own, yet confessing its inferiority and rendering obedience to higher powers; and 3. Revolutionary ornament, in which no executive inferiority is admitted at all.



Cited: Ruskin, John. "From The Stones of Venice." The Norton Anthology of English Literature : Vol. 2. 8th ed. Vol. 2. New York: Norton, 2001. 1324-334. Print. Wilde, Oscar. "Preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray." The Norton Anthology of English Literature : Vol. 2. 8th ed. Vol. 2. New York: Norton, 2001. 1697-698. Print.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Max Nordau creates an well written and interesting essay asking the question: what makes art appealing? What is considered beautiful, and what is considered heinous?…

    • 506 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the nineteenth century, the aestheticism movement changed the way art critics viewed and valued art. The aesthetes, the advocates of aestheticism, believed, roughly, that art is meant to be created and viewed for nothing by the sake of art itself. Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was a proponent of his movement towards the end of his life. The first portion of this two-part essay will convey Oscar Wilde’s views of aestheticism and the value of art. The second part will compare Wilde’s assessment of what art should be to Henry James’s (1843-1916) The Turn of the Screw.…

    • 411 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the year of 1980, Oscar Wilde published his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray, before he reached his height of fame. The first edition of his book appeared in the summer edition of Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine. Although, many criticized the novel as being scandalous and immoral. Wilde, being disappointed with its outcome, revised the novel in 1891, adding a preface and six new chapters. One of the main themes throughout this book would be the purpose of art, Wilde believed art did not serve any other purpose than being beautiful. He adopted this attitude from old Victorian England, where the most popular belief stated that art was not only a figure of morality but also had the means of enforcing it. In addition, two other contributing…

    • 835 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I felt the stock of my bow while I was sitting in the blind. Frost had already began to form where I rubbed it off seconds ago. I looked through the small window at the everlasting snow. “Wait, was that a deer moving along those trees?” I asked myself. It looked more like a kangaroo making its way through the snow. I could barely stand up in the cold. I pulled back, ready to take the shot.…

    • 1809 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Discuss critically the arguments over the role and value of ornament put forward by the two…

    • 640 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The first principle of aestheticism, the philosophy of art by which Oscar Wilde lived, is that art serves no other purpose than to offer beauty. Throughout The Picture of Dorian Gray, beauty reigns. It is a means to revitalize the wearied…

    • 619 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Picture of Dorian Gray is a key example in the way in which we can uncover the authors context and values. Much of Wilde's literary work was concentrated in expressing the lives of upper class Londoners – a elitist group in which Wilde was apart of. Dorian Gray, though being of a gothic genre still continues to represents this group of people. It is clear that many of the characters in the novel must be based upon various types of people that Wilde came across in everyday life. These late Victorian era socialites, obsessed with the superficial, the physical, wealth and wit are…

    • 4180 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Decorating Appropriately

    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Ornament, is generally defined as a decoration used to embellish parts of a building, has also been a controversial debating topic when architecture was introduced to the Modernism period. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, absence of ornaments became a hallmark of Modern architecture and equated the moral virtues of honesty, simplicity and purity. Le Corbusier, one of the prominent modernist figures, had always supported the ideals of simplistic and honest design. He blamed the deceit in ornamentations as it disguised the flaws in manufacture. However by the mid-1950s, he broke his own rules by producing several highly expressive, sculptural concrete works due to his realization of ornaments could equally serve practical purposes in architecture. In the essay Decorating Appropriately, French architect and theorist Eugene-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc unfolded numerous clear ideas about how and in what circumstances ornament should be employed by looking at different approaches to ornamentation in the cultures of Egypt, Greece and the Middle Ages.…

    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Oscar Wilde, author of The Picture of Dorian Gray, was an Irish author who lived from October 16, 1854 until his death, at the age of 46, on November 30, 1900. He attended the Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland and the Magdalene College in Oxford, England. Mr. Wilde was an active member of the aestheticism literary movement, during his day, although he lived during the Victorian Era. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, there are many passages or episodes that hold key meanings in the book as a whole, and without them; a large amount of the underlying tones and themes would be lost. In chapter two, there is a very significant key passage that has to do with the roles of Lord Henry and Dorian Gray and how they are going to affect each other. The key passage pushes Lord Henry under the role of the victimizer and Dorian Gray as the victim.…

    • 731 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rhetorical Analysis

    • 892 Words
    • 4 Pages

    For example, it is no coincidence that nations all over the world are using a huge, neo-classical style in the architecture of their own government buildings. The civic structures are adorned with pillars, and Porticus makes it a conscious reference and reference to the ancient Greek or Roman architecture, and to those civilizations in the highly revered form of democracy and republican governmental values. This explanation gives the government some sense of legitimacy and cultural capital. Thus, the discourse of architecture is full of obvious and clear ideological references.…

    • 892 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    George Kubler Research Paper

    • 4590 Words
    • 19 Pages

    creating in the process a document trail that helps tell the story of what was selected for…

    • 4590 Words
    • 19 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Pre-Raphaelite Movement

    • 4073 Words
    • 17 Pages

    An approach back to medieval archaism (with bright colours and flattened perspective); working towards ‘truth to nature ' ethics preached by art critic John Ruskin (against classical idealism) ; and the illustration of moral, religious and literary narrative. Christopher Wood sums up the movement as, ‘a blend of romantic idealism, scientific rationalism and morality. ' (See, Fig 1 and 2).…

    • 4073 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Chasuble, D.D.: Mr. H. H. Vincent. Merriman: Mr. Frank Dyall. Lane: Mr. F. Kinsey Peile. Lady Bracknell:…

    • 24391 Words
    • 98 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    "SparkNotes: The Picture of Dorian Gray: Themes, Motifs & Symbols." SparkNotes: Today 's Most Popular Study Guides. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Jan. 2013. .…

    • 1566 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Adolf Loos Design Culture

    • 877 Words
    • 4 Pages

    There are, or were, better arguments than Loos’s against the misuse of ornament. It could be considered morally dubious, because it is a means of showing off one's wealth. That historical argument was made in the days when hand-crafted decorations were very expensive, but it no longer applicable, now that ornament can be machine-made at a modest cost. In any case, good ornamentation has never been valued solely as ostentation; traditionally, it has also been seen to have real aesthetic merit. Sometimes, excessive ornamentation could be said to be unaesthetic; and in my perspective, some extreme art creations fall into this error. Art plays a particularly important and influential role in culture. It does not simply reflect culture; it creates culture. By studying ornamentation in different periods of design history, we can understand more about how it has manifested itself and why it is a vital part of our history.…

    • 877 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays