Entre la danse macabre et l’apologie de la vie, ou les vanités selon Joris-Karl Huysmans

In Joris-Karl Huysmans’ works, particularly those created in the transition between his decadent phase, symbolised by Down there (1891), and the period of mystical naturalism, which reaches its peak with The Cathedral (1898), it is possible to trace a complete and profound evolution of the vanitas motif. This article offers an analysis of three major stages of this change. It begins with the macabre vanitas characteristic for Down there. It is interpreted in the light of Félicien Rops’ aesthetics, which fascinates Huysmans in the 1880s, and the artistic adaptations of the temptation of saint Anthony in late Middle Ages and early Renaissance. Then, the article examines Huysmans’ approach to the Karlsruhe and the Isenheim Altar pieces by Matthias Grünewald, which marks a transition between the aesthetics of the dance of death and the mystical naturalism. The article finishes with a study of Grünewald's ekphraseis’ legacy: the apology of life, a new interpretation of the vanitas in The Cathedral.