
The Renaissance
Studies in Art and Poetry
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Narrated by:
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Wanda McCaddon
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By:
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Walter Pater
About this listen
Published to great acclaim in 1873, Walter Pater’s compendium of idiosyncratic, impressionistic essays on the Renaissance gained him a reputation as a daring modern philosopher. Oscar Wilde called it the “holy writ of beauty.” It was Pater’s cry of “art for art’s sake” that became the manifesto for the aesthetic movement. He believed that art should be sensual and that beauty should rank as the highest ideal. Marked by elegant fluency, Pater’s essays discuss Botticelli, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and other artists who, for him, embodied the spirit of the Renaissance. Pater’s work survives to this day as one of the best pieces of cultural criticism to emerge from the 19th century.
This collection is criticism as beautiful as the art it considers.
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Critic reviews
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- Robert S. Becker
- 10-26-21
Art history
I found this title when looking for the novel Marius the Epicurean (not available). The performance and content feel didactic to me, not what I look for on and audiobook.
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- Tyler
- 02-01-21
Wanda McCaddon and Pater = 😍
Wanda McCaddon is wonderful. Finding her reading of this work by Pater was fortunate. Some many bookmarked moments. McCaddon is as engaging, natural, and effortless as ever.
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3 people found this helpful
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- GogolGirl
- 10-14-20
Bizarre....no idea what I just listened to.
Listened to in the background at work (was free) but couldn’t tell you a single thing I remember or learned. It was very odd and no idea what organization was. Couldn’t hear the forest thru the trees. Narration had strong English (?) accent, was distracting.
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3 people found this helpful