On Art and Artists: An Anthology of Diderot’s Aesthetic Thought 2011th Edition by Denis Diderot (PDF)

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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.

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⭐On Art and Artists was originally edited by art historian Jean Seznec and translated for the first time into English by John S.D. Glaus. On Art and Artists chronicles the early developments of Denis Diderot’s aesthetic thought within the purview of the Salons. Originally intended as a favor entrusted to Denis Diderot by friend and publisher Friedrich Melchior Grimm, the Salons became a significant contribution to the genesis of art criticism in France and arguably one of the most overlooked and underestimated achievements in Diderot’s life and work. A salon was a bi-annual exhibition of the work of living artists held by the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Paris.This English translation will satisfy the needs of scholars and students, as well as those with a general interest in French art history, aestheticism, and the life and work of Denis Diderot. Being some of the few uncensored writings in eighteenth-century France that were not published underground, the Salons address a foreign audience of patrons and art enthusiasts that were unable to attend the annual exhibitions. Published by Grimm’s Correspondance littéraire, Diderot was afforded at least these nine occasions in his literary career where the threat of censorship was minimal; the reader can sense the freedom, honesty, and expansiveness about his colloquial thoughts and dispassionate methodology.Contrary to the wishes of some of his colleagues, he sought to spare neither himself nor the artists with niceties that clouded the truth. There is vulnerability in his writing style and humility in his predilection for questioning the assumptions that under girded French artists’ excessive veneration for and imitation of antiquity as opposed to Nature. As philosopher-salonnier, Diderot articulates his aesthetic thought first by asserting that beauty is essentially that which awakens our perception of relationships. In the excerpt entitled, `The Condition of Art’, for example, we find that value and beauty are no longer limited to a study of the art in art; for Diderot, it must include considerations of how the politics in art, the ethics in art, the economics in art, and the religion in art interplay and “release the real.” Diderot believed that how well the artist managed the contextual realms of ideality and morality were nearly as important as the artist’s technique regarding whether or not a painting or sculpture was beautiful in its composition. Additionally, he commented on how luxury, censorship, and patronage enticed the artist toward affectations and limited the prospective quality of art in France. In this sense, the Salons provide us with an ancillary evaluation of the zeitgeist of mid-eighteenth century France.To accomplish an enjoyable reading of On Art and Artists, it is not necessary to be knowledgeable about the arcane works of art or artists to which Diderot frequently refers. Given their poetic and conversational qualities, his descriptions and criticisms of these paintings and sculptures and their respective artists often read like stories that bring to life characters and scenes that were, for foreign readers, confined to invisible stone and canvas. Jean Seznec wrote, in his introduction, “Diderot is truly the catalyst here, and who in front of [art] speaks not only of discord but of echoes, noise and silence.” But his fastidiousness gradually leads him and the reader into more philosophical considerations: What can we expect from an artist? What can a painter achieve and what can a painter not achieve on a canvas? Is art a copy or an alteration of Nature? Should artists strive to imitate Nature instead of antiquity? May a critic be a better judge of paintings than a painter, and a better judge of sculptures than a sculptor? What is genius? Is beauty an affair of the intellect or one of the feelings? Can taste remain pure when values degenerate?This anthology of Diderot’s aesthetic thought is also clarified by commentaries of Jean Starobinski, Michel Delon and Arthur Cohen which allows for a modern approach to Diderot’s thoughts and aids us with interpretations from some of France’s great contemporary art historians. Through the readings of these commentaries we are able to grasp how the Salons delved both into Diderot’s thoughts on specific works of art as well as those that derive from his general study of what was in his time the milieu of French art. We read passages here that identify a methodology that is useful today in a world where it is becoming increasingly difficult to determine what has value. In an age where attention spans are short and patience is in short supply, reading On Art and Artists will remind us how much we can know about art and the inner life if only we trusted ourselves to take the time.As a novice student of French aestheticism and art history in eighteenth century France, I found this translation to be an artwork in its own right; one that allows Diderot’s thought to percolate through the English language by way of carefully selected syntax and an idiomatic sensibility. This book caused me to revisit my philosophical introduction to an aesthetic intellect and inspired me to invigorate my investigation into the life and work of Denis Diderot – one of the brilliant minds of eighteenth century France.Prior to reading this book, I did not consider Diderot beyond his contributions to the Encyclopédie and the theater; interestingly, neither do many of his biographers. On Art and Artists reveals for the first time in English Diderot’s significant contribution to art criticism and his most overt demonstration of his versatility as a thinker and writer.

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