"Perte d'auréole", one of Baudelaire's "petits poèmes en prose", touches the heart of the problem faced by Walter Benjamin in his always quoted essay on the "work of art." If we read the vicissitude of Baudelaire's poet as representing the metamorphosis of a classical concept of art, we should keep in mind that few artists accepted such morphing with the witty ease that characterizes the modernity of Baudelaire's insight. In this essay, it is attempted a comparative reading of both authors.
aura; work of art; modernity