D’Annunzio’s uneven reception both within and outside of Italy is partially due to the close association between his work and Italian fascism. Yet his concept of beauty certainly exceeds the narrow confines of that association. His aesthetics is more than a (fascist) aestheticism. In this article we introduce the special issue on D’Annunzio’s beauty by articulating the complex, multifaceted role of the aesthetic in D’Annunzio’s works and thought. He idealizes art as a refuge against the levelling forces of modern capitalism, bourgeois society, democracy and massification. This positions him in between decadentism and modernism, on the one hand, and between the aestheticism of post-Kantian idealism and a heroic vision of nationalism, on the other. Ever an eclectic thinker and artist, D’Annunzio’s legacy remains rich, challenging, prolific: now, a century from the war in which he became a nationalist hero, is an ideal moment to return to the question of how these complex, conflicting elements emerge in D'Annunzio's seductive picture of beauty.
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