沃尔特·佩特《文艺复兴》中的历史唯美主义

Walter Pater's Historical Aestheticism in The Renaissance

佩特认为,艺术表现的是人的思想,而思想是随着历史的演进而发展的,艺术的发展与人类思想的发展相对应,历史为佩特的艺术序列理论提供了最重要的支撑。同时,佩特还认为,历史是永恒的变化,但过去并没有在演进的过程中消逝,而是在新的历史条件下获得新生,过去与现在是对立融合的关系。基于这样的历史观,佩特在研究文艺复兴艺术时强调不同时期艺术与文化之间的延续和融合,并把唯美主义诗歌理解为历史与现在的交融。

According to Pater, art is the presentation of human thoughts which develop along with history, and the development of art corresponds with the development of mind. Thus history provides the important framework for Pater＇ s theory of art sequence. For Pater, history is the process of forever changing, yet the past does not die in the process of evolution hut survives in the present, as the old is reserved and refined in the new which contends against it. Due to this view, Pater seeks to establish a continuity between arts of different periods and explains aesthetic poetry as the representation of the past in the present.