The ‘Curious’ Pagan Spirit of Pater’s The Renaissance

Abstract

Illustrates that the reciprocal function of curiosity and a pagan sensibility constitutes the dominant, consistent argument of Pater’s work. Through an etymological account of the word “curious” and an analysis of Pater’s aesthetic principles, argues his recurrent thesis regarding the Renaissance makes his prose work a cohesive treatise; the serenity arising from the curious approach to life of a pagan sensibility parallels the harmonization of form and content that Pater values in art. Drawing on the carpe diem motif of the “Conclusion,” shows how curiosity underwrites Pater’s view of Renaissance artists and scholars: he sees their work as a desire for beauty and a search for historical and aesthetic continuities between paganism and Christianity. Concludes that Pater’s argument informs his famous “art for art’s sake” dictum.