English artistic movement of the late 19th century, dedicated to the doctrine of ‘art for art's sake’ – that is, art as a self-sufficient entity concerned solely with beauty and not with any moral or social purpose. It was a reaction to the Victorian sensibility, and dominated art and literature between 1868 and 1901. The artists of this movement believed that art was to be enjoyed for its own sake, rather than any moral message it might seem to contain. They emphasized aesthetic pleasure derived from the immediate experience of an art form, over any didactic value attached to it, or inadvertently extricated from it. The works of these aesthetes is characterized by sensuality and the profuse use of symbols and synaesthetic effects. The aim was to wholly engage the senses, and hold the beholder enthralled. Generally speaking, it represents the same tendencies that Symbolism or Decadence stood for in France, or Decadentismo stood for in Italy, and may be considered the British branch of the same movement.
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