In February 1873, Walter Pater published a book of art-historical essays, Studies in the History of the Renaissance, which became the “golden book” for a generation of artists and writers aligned with Britain’s Aesthetic movement. Ignoring conventional Victorian ideas of morality or religion, Pater exhorted his readers to devote themselves to art, beauty, and sensuous experience. Image: Photograph of Walter Pater. This image is in the public domain in the United States because its copyright has expired.

Articles

Rachel Teukolsky, “Walter Pater’s Renaissance (1873) and the British Aesthetic Movement”