Aesthete (pronounced es-theet
or ees-theet (especially
British))
(1) A
person who has or professes to have refined sensitivity toward the beauties of
art or nature.
(2) A
person who affects great love of art, music, poetry, etc and indifference to
practical matters.
1880–1885:
From the Ancient Greek αἰσθητής
(aisthētḗs) (one who perceives), the construct being aisthē- (variant stem of aisthánesthai (to perceive)) + -tēs (the Greek noun suffix denoting
agent). It was a Victorian back formation from aesthetics, from
either the German Ästhetik or the French
esthétique, both from Ancient Greek αἰσθητικός (aisthētikós)
(of sense perception), from αἰσθάνομαι
(aisthánomai) (I feel). There is probably no exact synonym, the
closet being connoisseur but it conveys a slightly different implication and
the derived noun hyperaesthete is used sometimes as a term of derision directed at the excessively civilized. The rarely used alternative spellings esthete & æsthete are now used only as literary devices and are otherwise obsolete. Aesthete is a noun and aesthetic is a noun & adjective; the noun plural is aesthetes.
Aestheticism
Aestheticism was a nineteenth century movement in European art now best remembered for the doctrine that art exists for the sake of its beauty alone, with no need for it to serve any political, didactic or other purpose. The modern expression most associated with the movement is l’art pour l’art (art for art’s sake). The movement is held to have been a reaction to the prevailing utilitarian social philosophies and what was said to be the ugliness of the industrial age and the philistinism of the newly prominent mercantile class. Its philosophical framework was built in the eighteenth century by German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) who argued for the autonomy of aesthetic standards, set apart from considerations of morality, utility or pleasure. The idea attracted many including Goethe (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832), Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) and Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) and it was the French philosopher Victor Cousin (1792–1867) who, in 1818, coined the phrase l’art pour l’art. It was at the time controversial. The establishment regarded art and literature as part of the ethical and social construct, something certainly challenged by what seemed a decadent display of sensuality and a flaunting of sexual and political experimentation. The phrase art for art’s sake became identified with the energy and creativity of aestheticism but was adopted also by those who feared the implications of a decoupling of art and morality: that the dangerous ideas of art could infect politics and challenge the social order.
Aesthete is now rare and the more familiar related form is the noun & adjective aesthetic (1) concerned with beauty, artistic effect, or appearance; appealing to one's sense of beauty or art & (2) the study of art or beauty; that which appeals to the senses; the artistic motifs defining a collection of things.
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