The problem of the relation of aesthetic and moral, beautiful and ugliness in art: from the aristocratic aestheticism to the aristocratic ugliness

The author considers the correlation between the aesthetic and the moral from ancient to modern times. Special attention is paid to the analysis of such a phenomenon as aestheticism, manifested in art and life in England at the end of the 19 th century, in decadence in France and in D’Annunzionism in Italy. According to the author, all these phenomena were united by the cult of beauty and art. Modern (contemporary) art is characterized as aestheticizing the ugly.

aesthetic, moral, aestheticism, decadence, d’annuntsianizm, a beauty cult, the cult of ugliness