After the trends of classicism and romanticism, the stylistic pluralism of the 19th century broke out. Many styles were suddenly considered contemporary, but why? New infrastructures accelerated the view of painters and the public. The medium of photography, together with the mass distribution of illustrated graphics, led to a society with an affinity for images that hungered for ever new forms of visualisation. Alongside the allégorie réelle and the cry: "L'art pour l'art", the décadence was formed; and symbolism thus emphasised the loss of trust in science and technology. The aim is to illuminate two centuries of outstanding artistic history and to describe the conflicts that characterised the epochs, but also to reveal the hidden continuities of the age.