"The Pagan School" (French: L'École païenne) is an essay by the French writer Charles Baudelaire. First published in 1852, it is critical of the neopaganism of its time, which existed in explicit form among supporters of the French Revolution of 1848. From this starting point, Baudelaire criticised a broader trend of striving for material beauty and sensory pleasure, which he said would leave people unsatisfied and make it hard to maintain relationships. He argued in opposition of art that is visually pleasing and called for art and literature that is ugly, comical and attuned to science and philosophy.
"The Pagan School" is in line with Baudelaire's aversion to pantheistic views and contains a specifically modern rejection of classicism. It addresses the modern idea of the god Pan as an embodiment of revolutionary momentum, which Baudelaire viewed as artificial. The essay has been interpreted in relation to the art for art's sake movement, modern iconoclasm and the connections between religion, art and politics.
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