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Article: Pater's THE RENAISSANCE and Wilde's SALOME.(Walter Pater and Oscar Wilde)(Critical Essay)
- Article from:
- The Explicator
- Article date:
- January 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 Heldref Publications. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The influence of Walter Pater's The Renaissance on Oscar Wilde is well recognized. Pater's book was the cornerstone of the English Decadent movement. In The Picture of Dorian Gray, Lord Henry Wotton quotes, paraphrases, and misquotes at length from the conclusion to The Renaissance. Wilde himself, during his first meeting with W. B. Yeats, declared that The Renaissance "is my golden book; I never travel anywhere without it."[1] And yet the crucial influence of the book on Salome has not been studied in detail.
The influence is profound, for Salome is firmly rooted in the Leonardo da Vinci essay in The Renaissance. Pater wrote of Leonardo that "though he handles ...