Pater in Italy

Abstract

Reviews the importance of Pater’s first tour of Italy in 1865 in shaping the content of The Renaissance. Examines Pater criticism in Italy, focusing on the present decade and reviewing a collection of essays from a conference held in Venice in 1994. Asserts that Pater critics in Italy today desire to transcend the “hegemonic” notion of Pater as “the father of English decadence” that Mario Praz espoused during the first half of the century.