Back to the self. The interiorized intérieur of Edmond De Goncourt and Mario Praz/Ritorno all’io. L’intérieur interiorizzato di Edmond De Goncourt e Mario Praz

Between the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the idea of home is connected to certain ideals, aesthetic as much as existential: a refuge from the world, a mirror of the soul, a voluntary prison, a custody of collections. The personality of the individual, particularly the intellectual, becomes the centre of a different way of living. A new taste in furnishing is also emerging, which absorbs the values of Aestheticism and transforms them into a complex ‘ensemble’ of furniture, objects, bibelots, works of art, draperies, carpets and various fabrics, and books, i.e. into an articulate and autobiographical ‘mise‐en‐scène’. For some authors, the furnishing of oneʹs home also becomes a literary theme, as for Edmond De Goncourt (La Maison dʹun Artiste, 1881) and Mario Praz (La casa della vita, 1958), in which personal life is continually, and voluntarily, intertwined with furnishings.