The eighteenth-century French philosophe Denis Diderot—the
principal intelligence behind the Encyclopédie and the author of
idiosyncratic fictional works such as Jacques the Fatalist and
Rameau's Nephew—was also the first great art critic. Until now,
however, Diderot's treatises on the visual arts have been available
only in French. This two-volume edition makes the most important of
his art-critical texts available in English for the first time.
Diderot's works are among the most provocative and engaging
products of the French Enlightenment. Moreover, their ruminations
on many issues of perennial interest (invention versus convention,
nature versus culture, and technique versus imagination; the
complex relations between economic reality and artistic
achievement) give them a rare pertinence to current debates on the
nature and function of representation. All the celebrated pieces
are here: the rhapsodic dream meditation inspired by Fragonard's
Corésus and Callierhoé; the incident-packed "excursion" through a
set of landscapes by Joseph Vernet; the evocative consideration of
the nature of ruins and historical nostalgia prompted by the first
showing of works by Hubert Robert. But these famous passages can
now be considered in their proper context, surrounded by
meditations that are less well known but equally sparkling. The
book also includes brief introductory texts and annotations by John
Goodman that clarify the many references to contemporary Parisian
culture, as well as an introduction by Thomas Crow that sets the
texts in their historical and art-historical context.
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