Traces the decline of beauty as an ideal from early German romanticism to the twentieth century.

Federico Vercellone is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Torino and the author of many books, including (with Olaf Breidbach) Thinking and Imagination: Between Science and Art. Sarah De Sanctis is a philosophy scholar and the translator of over fifteen philosophy books, including Quasi-Things: The Paradigm of Atmospheres, by Tonino Griffero and Manifesto of New Realism, by Maurizio Ferraris, both also published by SUNY Press. She has edited, with Anna Longo, Breaking the Spell: Contemporary Realism under Discussion.