«Buon dì, messer cantore!»: Isaotta, la bellezza e i modelli europei

Abstract

The essay proposes a suggestive reading of Isaotta Guttadauro (1886) by d’Annunzio from a new critical perspective. Evasion and fantasy are not a literary game for its own sake but they have a parodic and polemical intent towards a materialistic simplicity that had lost the aesthetic dimension of the experience. The main object is the attendance of Beauty and Literature to guarantee the evolution of the civilised man. It also explores the European models that had influenced d’Annunzio’s choice: Keats, Ruskin, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood that had a lot of followers in Rome during the Umbertine Period (1878-1900).

Keywords

• Dame e cavalieri. Isaotta Guttadauro. La favola di Isaotta. Pre-Raphaelism in Italy. l dolce grappolo