Aesthetically stunning, that's for sure. Intellectual, unstable. Uptight - oh, the conventions of the time. Quickly legible - still twenty years to go until the age of art nouveau with its outrage of typefaces. It might have an ambiance of a Paris hair salon - salute to the Parnassiens. Such a modern-class (don't blend it with the modern-styled) pharmaceutical Antiqua. Contrasts, thin serifs, the integrity of the operating theatre.
But Baudelaire is not Heredia. "Une charogne" is not that much a vivid metaphor as an illustration from nature. The baudelairean typeface must have its cavern, flow, dark side.
Not to show the delicate romantic profile of a cursed poet, as Baudelaire was seen 130 years back, but to reveal the genuine discomfort. A true, unattractive, egoistic, self-destructive passion.
Font Family:
· Fleursdumal
· Fleursdumal Italic
Tags: alternates, antiqua, baudelaire, book, display, magazine, romantic, victorian