Friedrich Nietzsche , Oscar Wilde, Thomas Hardy, and Stéphane Mallarmé.
Artists and their audiences often felt estranged from society, mocking traditional moral rules and embracing sensualism and morbidity to scandalize the "bourgeois" middle class. Decadent Subjects: The Idea of Decadence in Art...
Decadent art famously values artifice over nature and sophistication over simplicity. It rejects the idea that art must be "useful" or spiritually elevating. Friedrich Nietzsche , Oscar Wilde, Thomas Hardy, and
Figures like Salomé , the Sphinx, and the Medusa became central motifs, representing both a fascination with and a fear of shifting gender relations at the turn of the century. Key Figures Explored and the Medusa became central motifs