"Everything beautiful and noble is the result of reason and calculation."
Nature, Baudelaire says, is ugly—and art is what saves us from it. This wicked, brilliant fragment defends makeup not as deception but as devotion: a ritual rebellion against decay, chance, and animal life. To paint the face is to reject nature’s chaos and choose artifice—freely, proudly, and exquisitely.
This wicked, brilliant fragment defends makeup not as deception but as devotion: a ritual rebellion against decay, chance, and animal life.
