On art and artists : an anthology of Diderot's aesthetic thought

237 Pages·2011·2.16 MB·English

by  John S. D. Glaus

John S. D. Glaus and Jean Seznec (eds.), On Art and Artists: An Anthology of Diderot's Aesthetic Thought,
DOI: 10.1007/978-94-007-0062-8, © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011
Editors
John S. D. Glaus and Jean Seznec
Denis Diderot and John S. D. Glaus
On Art and Artists: An Anthology of
Diderot's Aesthetic Thought
Editors
John S. D. Glaus
Rumford, Maine, USA
Jean Seznec
Oxford, United Kingdom
Denis Diderot
John S. D. Glaus
Ombudsman of the Euler Society, Washington, DC, USA
ISBN 978-94-007-0061-1 e-ISBN 978-94-007-0062-8
Springer Dordrecht Heidelberg London New York
© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011
Translation from the French language edition: Ecrits sur l’art et les artistes , by
Denis Diderot (paper collection, introduction and notes by Jean Seznec; with
contributions by Jean Starobinski, Michel Delon and Arthur Cohen) Copyright ©
Hermann, Paris 2007
No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the
Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the
purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use
by the purchaser of the work.
Printed on acid-free paper
Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)

Contents
Introduction
Definitions
Beauty
Beauty Is the Perception of Relations
Beauty in Nature and Art
God and the Artist
Beautiful Nature and the Ideal Model
False Art
Art and Pantomime
The Sublime
Style
Genius and Inspiration
What Is Genius?
A Composed Genius
Inequalities of Inspiration
The Drawing and the Finished Work
Views on Sculpture
Difficulties of Sculpture
Its Limits and Its Merits
The Sculptor’s Temperament
Views on Architecture
Architecture, Mother of the Arts
Architecture and Location
Architecture and Its Destination
The Condition of Art
Emulation and the Virtue of Public Exhibitions
One Should Institute a Contest
On a Same Theme for Artists
Luxury
Sane Wealth, Which Comes from Agriculture, is the Only One Which Is
Useful to the Fine-Arts; The Spendthrift Buyer Degrades Them
The Collectors
They Reduce the Artist to Slavery
They Keep for Themselves Works That Should Be Displayed for Public
Enjoyment and Education and to Inspire Competition
They Dispise Taste by Prefering Minor Scenes and Belittling the Great Ones
Climate and Costume
The Academic Model
The Positive Philosophical Intellect
The Ruin of the State
Criticism
Can a Literary Person Be an Art Critic?
His Ignorance of the Vocation Appears to Prohibit Him
How Diderot Taught Himself, Due to His Function as a Salonnier
Contained Within the “Ideal” Part of Art, Can the Literary Person Be the
Better Judge than the Artist Himself
The Artist Recognizes Implicitly the Superiority of the Writer on This Point
The Idea and the Way to Do It. Diderot Purveyor of Subjects
Priority of the Idea
Diderot Thinks as a Painter
He Also Knows to Conceive as a Sculptor
He Can Improve the Artist’s Concept as Well as Guide Him
Qualities of a Critic
Imagination and Memory
Sensibility
The Pleasure to Praise
Indulgence
Frankness and Charity
Opinion and Posterity
History
The Great Style
The Sword or Bellone Presenting His Horses’ Reins to Mars
Paganism and Christianity
Christian Characters Are Lacking and Spiteful; However the Great
Masters Ennoble Them by Borrowing from Ancient Characters
Two Summits of Religious Painting of the Eighteenth Century
Modern History
Why Painters Are Not Amenable to Modern History
Diderot Proposes a Subject in Modern History
Allegory
The Triumph of Justice
The Process of Description
Comparison
Dialogue
The Dream
The Countryside
The Qualities of a Landscape Artist
The Complete Landscapist
The Intelligence of Light
A Morning After the Rain
Prelude to a Storm at Sunset
Artificial Nature: Boucher
The Shepherds of the Opéra-Comique
Another Pastoral Setting
Same Grandeur, Same Form and Same Merit as the Preceeding One
In Boucher’s Defense
Nature and History
Praise for Vernet
How Poussin Raises a Landscape to the Dignity of History
The Picturesque: Loutherbourg
Battles, Ruins and Shipwrecks
The Painter of Battles Must Be a Poet and Dramatist
The “Poetry” of Ruins
Moral Associations
Romantic Shipwrecks
The Portrait
The State and Appearance
La Tour’s Ideas
The Usual Expression
Concerning Ones Own Portrait
Portraits and Models
The Portrait and History
The Downfall of the Portrait
The Type