"DELIGHTFUL MANIA": AUBREY BEARDSLEY AND THE HYPNEROTOMACHIA POLIPHILI

Notable for its singular specificity in this list of the "delightful mania" and "modern appreciations" reflected in Beardsley's work is Ross's reference to the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, a book that, as has been shown elsewhere,' had considerable influence on the P...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Journal of pre-Raphaelite studies (1992) Vol. 30; p. 63
Main Author Bentley, D MR
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Toronto Journal of Pre-Raphaelite Studies 01.04.2021
Subjects
Authorship
Calloway, Stephen
Complete works
Illustrations
Literary criticism
Poetry
Pre-Raphaelitism
Online AccessGet more information

Cover

More Information
Summary:Notable for its singular specificity in this list of the "delightful mania" and "modern appreciations" reflected in Beardsley's work is Ross's reference to the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili, a book that, as has been shown elsewhere,' had considerable influence on the Pre-Raphaelites, not least on his mentor, Edward Burne-Jones, whom he first met on 12 July 1891 (see Beardsley, Letters 21-22). Not for over thirty years after the appearance of Ross's biography did his association of Beardsley with the Hypnerotomachia resurface, now with some scholarly precision, in Mario Praz's The Romantic Agony (1933), where Beardsley's indebtedness to the book is seen as twofold: the "precious style" of his unfinished novel The Story of Venus and Tannhauser "resemble[es| that of the Hypnerotomachia" and "Beardsley's drawings derive... not merely ornamental motifs but actual technical suggestions" from the book's "famous illustrations" (342). Despite Praz's comments, Beardsley scholars have been slow to recognize his numerous debts to the Hypnerotomachia: to take two prominent examples, in Brian Reade's Aubrey Beardsley (1967) only one drawing is linked to the Hypnerotomachia, and in Linda Gertner Zatlin' s magisterial Aubrey Beardsley: A Catalogue Raisonne (2016) it is mentioned in connection with only three of well over a thousand works.
ISSN:1060-149X