Decadent Subjects: The Idea Of Decadence In Art... Page

Artists and their audiences often felt estranged from society, mocking traditional moral rules and embracing sensualism and morbidity to scandalize the "bourgeois" middle class.

Friedrich Nietzsche , Oscar Wilde, Thomas Hardy, and Stéphane Mallarmé. Decadent Subjects: The Idea of Decadence in Art...

The text connects Freudian theories—such as the death drive , hysteria, and sexual identity—to the artistic phenomena of the late 19th century. Artists and their audiences often felt estranged from

Figures like Salomé , the Sphinx, and the Medusa became central motifs, representing both a fascination with and a fear of shifting gender relations at the turn of the century. Key Figures Explored and the Medusa became central motifs