Fiche du document
1987
Copyright PERSEE 2003-2023. Works reproduced on the PERSEE website are protected by the general rules of the Code of Intellectual Property. For strictly private, scientific or teaching purposes excluding all commercial use, reproduction and communication to the public of this document is permitted on condition that its origin and copyright are clearly mentionned.
Sujets proches
Western art (Western countries) Fine arts Iconography Arts, Fine Art, Occidental Arts, Visual Visual arts Occidental art Art, Visual Art, Western (Western countries) ArtsCiter ce document
Annie Becq, « Diderot historien de l'art ? », Dix-Huitième Siècle, ID : 10.3406/dhs.1987.1666
Métriques
Partage / Export
Résumé
Annie Becq : Diderot art historian ? The questioning title indicates that the issue is the very possibility, and not the nature of art history in France at this date. This article tries to explain the historical dimension of the Salons as documents of their time and inasmuch as their critical judgements imply a historical perspective, limited by the normative nature of this criticism. The normative point of view interferes with the explicitly historical projects laid out, for example in the articles art and encyclopédie. The archaic conception of cyclical revolutions which is still at the basis of historical knowledge is here combined with the opposition between Ancients and Moderns. Thus we have a model for understanding the historical nature of art which indicates that Diderot, like many Enlightenment thinkers, had problems with history and time.