aestheticism

noun

1. the acceptance of artistic beauty and taste as a fundamental standard, ethical and other standards being secondary.
2. an exaggerated devotion to art, music, or poetry, with indifference to practical matters.
3. a late Victorian movement in British and American art characterized by a dedicatedly eclectic search for beauty and by an interest in old English, Japanese, and classical art.

noun

1. the doctrine that aesthetic principles are of supreme importance and that works of art should be judged accordingly
2. sensitivity to beauty, esp in art, music, literature, etc

n.

1855, from aesthetic + -ism.