The artist and the work of art

paradoxes of the modern muse

Abstract

Marked by events and social transformations in modern times and by the feeling of a lack of meaning in the world, which is seen as illusory and superficial, artists establish a relationship between the aesthetic object and the female figure, which, representing the new times, is seen as a product of the male gaze and creativity, becoming the artistic image par excellence. When approaching this theme in L’Ève future, the French writer Villiers de l’Isle-Adam (1838-1889) inscribes his novel in the lineage of works in which the artist and his universe stand out. Through the creation of an android, the relationship between the model and the work of art stands out, referring to the theme of the double, one of the oldest in literature. It is also possible to glimpse the fracture between the self and the world and the search, in the idealistic artist that was Villiers, for the dream of ideal beauty.