a term oscar wild made famous: l'art pour l'art.
a view known as aestheticism, which is synonymous with symbolism or decadence (decadentismo in Italy).
what does it mean really? the artist doesn't do art for any other reason than art's sake.
art is autarchic!
the movement happens from around 1870-1901. it's generally considered to have ended with the trial of Oscar Wilde.
Ramon Casas, Decadent Youth, 1899
Wyndham Lewis, Ezra Pound, 1919
Dora Carrington, Litton Strachey, 1918
James Ensor, Dunkards, 1883
Gustav Klimt, The Virgin, 1913