'Onbeschaamde geleerden hebben zijn naaktheid betast.' Het vertoog over genealiteit, waanzin en degeneratie in België omstreeks 1900

'Impudent scholars have fondled his naked body.' The discourse on genius, madness and degeneracy in Belgium around 1900In the late nineteenth century two publications on the subject of 'genius' provoked a storm of controversy. The first, by Cesare Lombroso entitled 'L'uomo di genio' (1888), emphasized the various links between genius and madness. The second, by Max Nordau entitled 'Entartung' (1892), set out to prove that a large number of well-known artists of the time were in fact pseudo-geniuses and degenerates. In response to these publications a debate got under way among Belgian artists... Mehr ...