Glaus / Diderot / Seznec On Art and Artists: An Anthology of Diderot's Aesthetic Thought

2011
ISBN: 978-94-007-0062-8
Verlag: Springer Netherland
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: 1 - PDF Watermark

E-Book, Englisch, 189 Seiten, eBook

Chance ordained that Denis Diderot (1713-1784) was not only a philosopher, playwright and writer, but also a salonnier. In other words, an art critic. In 1759, his friend Grimm entrusted him with a project that forced him to acquire 'thoughtful notions concerning painting and sculpture' and to refine 'art terms, so familiar in his words yet so vague in his mind'. Diderot wrote artistic reviews of exhibitions - Salons - that were organized bi-annually at the Louvre by the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture. These reviews, published in the Correspondence Littéraire, were Diderot's unique contribution to art criticism in France. He fulfilled his task of salonnier on nine occasions, despite occasional dips in his enthusiasm and self-confidence. Compiled and presented by Jean Szenec, this anthology helps the contemporary reader to familiarize himself with Diderot's aesthetic thought in all its greatness. It includes eight illustrations and is followed by texts from Jean Starobinski, Michel Delon, and Arthur Cohen. 'On Art and Artists' is translated by John Glaus, professor of French and an amateur expert of the XVIIIth century.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Diderot, Denis

Glaus, John S. D.

Seznec, Jean

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1;Contents;6
2;Introduction;10
2.1;Notes;19
3;Definitions;21
3.1;Beauty;21
3.1.1;Beauty Is the Perception of Relations;21
3.1.2;Beauty in Nature and Art;22
3.1.3;God and the Artist;23
3.1.4;Beautiful Nature and the Ideal Model;24
3.1.5;False Art;28
3.1.6;Art and Pantomime;29
3.1.7;The Sublime;30
3.1.8;Style;31
3.2;Genius and Inspiration;33
3.2.1;What Is Genius?;33
3.2.2;A Composed Genius;34
3.2.3;Inequalities of Inspiration;35
3.2.4;The Drawing and the Finished Work;36
3.3;Views on Sculpture;36
3.3.1;Difficulties of Sculpture;36
3.3.2;Its Limits and Its Merits;37
3.3.3;The Sculptor’s Temperament;39
3.4;Views on Architecture;39
3.4.1;Architecture, Mother of the Arts;39
3.4.2;Architecture and Location;41
3.4.3;Architecture and Its Destination;41
4;The Condition of Art;44
4.1;Emulation and the Virtue of Public Exhibitions;44
4.2;One Should Institute a Contest;44
4.2.1;On a Same Theme for Artists;44
4.3;Luxury;45
4.3.1;Sane Wealth, Which Comes from Agriculture, is the Only One Which Is Useful to the Fine-Arts; The Spendthrift Buyer Degrades Them45
4.4;The Collectors;48
4.4.1;They Reduce the Artist to Slavery;48
4.5;They Keep for Themselves Works That Should Be Displayed for Public Enjoyment and Education and to Inspire Competition;48
4.6;They Dispise Taste by Prefering Minor Scenes and Belittling the Great Ones;49
4.7;Climate and Costume;50
4.7.1;The Academic Model;50
4.8;The Positive Philosophical Intellect;52
4.9;The Ruin of the State;54
5;Criticism;55
5.1;Can a Literary Person Be an Art Critic?;55
5.1.1;His Ignorance of the Vocation Appears to Prohibit Him;55
5.1.2;How Diderot Taught Himself, Due to His Functionas a Salonnier;56
5.1.3;Contained Within the “Ideal” Part of Art, Can the Literary Person Be the Better Judge than the Artist Himself;56
5.1.4;The Artist Recognizes Implicitly the Superiority of the Writer on This Point;58
5.2;The Idea and the Way to Do It. Diderot Purveyor of Subjects;59
5.2.1;Priority of the Idea;59
5.2.2;Diderot Thinks as a Painter;59
5.2.3;He Also Knows to Conceive as a Sculptor;60
5.2.4;He Can Improve the Artist’s Concept as Well as Guide Him;62
5.3;Qualities of a Critic;63
5.3.1;Imagination and Memory;63
5.3.2;Sensibility;64
5.3.3;The Pleasure to Praise;64
5.3.4;Indulgence;65
5.3.5;Frankness and Charity;65
5.4;Opinion and Posterity;66
6;History;69
6.1;The Great Style;69
6.1.1;The Sword or Bellone Presenting His Horses’ Reins to Mars;72
6.2;Paganism and Christianity;73
6.2.1;Christian Characters Are Lacking and Spiteful; However the Great Masters Ennoble Them by Borrowing from Ancient Characters75
6.2.2;Two Summits of Religious Painting of the Eighteenth Century;76
6.3;Modern History;80
6.3.1;Why Painters Are Not Amenable to Modern History;80
6.3.2;Diderot Proposes a Subject in Modern History;82
6.4;Allegory;82
6.4.1;The Triumph of Justice;83
6.5;The Process of Description;84
6.5.1;Comparison;84
6.5.2;Dialogue;85
6.5.3;The Dream;87
6.5.3.1;Grimm;88
6.5.3.2;Diderot;88
6.5.3.3;Grimm;89
6.5.3.4;Diderot;89
6.5.3.5;Grimm;89
7;The Countryside;90
7.1;The Qualities of a Landscape Artist;90
7.1.1;The Complete Landscapist;90
7.2;The Intelligence of Light;91
7.3;A Morning After the Rain;92
7.3.1;Prelude to a Storm at Sunset;92
7.4;Artificial Nature: Boucher;93
7.4.1;The Shepherds of the OPÉRA-COMIQUE;93
7.5;Another Pastoral Setting;94
7.5.1;Same Grandeur, Same Form and Same Merit as the Preceeding One;94
7.6;In Boucher’s Defense;94
7.7;Nature and History;96
7.7.1;Praise for Vernet;96
7.8;How Poussin Raises a Landscape to the Dignity of History;97
7.9;The Picturesque: Loutherbourg;98
7.10;Battles, Ruins and Shipwrecks;99
7.10.1;The Painter of Battles Must Be a Poet and Dramatist;99
7.11;The “Poetry” of Ruins;100
7.11.1;Moral Associations;100
7.12;Romantic Shipwrecks;102
8;The Portrait;105
8.1;The State and Appearance;105
8.1.1;La Tour’s Ideas;105
8.2;The Usual Expression;106
8.3;Concerning Ones Own Portrait;108
8.4;Portraits and Models;108
8.5;The Portrait and History;109
8.6;The Downfall of the Portrait;110
9;The Type;112
9.1;True Subjects;112
9.2;The Russian Baptism;114
9.3;Feigned and True Moral Painting;115
9.3.1;Baudoin;115
9.3.1.1;The Feelings of Love and Nature, Allowing Time for Necessity;115
9.4;Greuze;117
9.5;The Type and History;120
9.5.1;Anecdotal Necessity;120
9.6;The Respective Merits of the Historical Painter and the Scene Painter; Their Differences Are Those between Poetry and Prose121
10;Still Life;124
10.1;Chardin;124
10.2;Ideal and Technique;126
11;Diderot in the Painter’s Space;128
12;The Averted Look: Diderot and the Boundaries of Representation;153
13;Composition According to Diderot;165
13.1;The Ambiguties of Definition Concerning Composition Within the Encyclopédie;167
13.1.1;Planning as Guarantee to Comprehension;170
13.1.2;Planning as Value-Added Interest to a Painting;172
13.1.3;Composition as Unifier;175
13.1.4;Composition as Determinant of the Artist’s “Must”;180
13.1.5;An Enlightened Aesthetic;184
13.2;As Conclusion;186
13.3;Notes;187

Introduction by Jean Szenec.- Definitions.- The conditions of art.- Criticism.- History.- The countryside.- The portrait.- The type.- Still life.- Diderot in the painter’s space by Jean Starobinski.- The averted Look by Michel Delon.- Composition according to Diderot by Arthur Cohen.