Diderot and Eros
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| + | Extracts from [[Diderot]]’s [[1761 Salon]] [from [[Seznec / Adhémar]], 1957, vol I]: via "[[A Dissertation on Invective]]"In 1957, Seznec, together with Jean Adhémar (q.v.) began issuing their four-volume edition of Denis Diderot's Paris Salon criticism, which Diderot had ... | ||
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| + | [[Denis Diderot]] said of [[François Boucher]]: | ||
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| :"I don’t know what to say about this man. Degradation of taste, color, composition, character, expression and drawing have kept pace with moral depravity. What can we expect this artist to throw onto the canvas? What he has in his imagination. And what can be in the imagination of a man who spends his life with prostitutes of the basest kind? <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[Peter Gay]] notes in [[The Enlightenment: The Science of Freedom]] (NY: Norton, 1995, p. 277) that this is “a daring rhetorical question, since the prostituées du plus bas étage Diderot had in mind were not merely Boucher’s models but Louis XV’s mistresses”] The grace of his [[shepherdess]]es is the grace of Madame Favart in ''[[Rose and Colas]]''; that of his goddesses is borrowed from [[La Deschamps]]. I defy you to find a single blade of grass in any of his landscapes. And then there’s such a confusion of objects piled one on top of the other, so poorly disposed, so motley, that we’re dealing not so much with the pictures of a rational being as with the dreams of a madman." | :"I don’t know what to say about this man. Degradation of taste, color, composition, character, expression and drawing have kept pace with moral depravity. What can we expect this artist to throw onto the canvas? What he has in his imagination. And what can be in the imagination of a man who spends his life with prostitutes of the basest kind? <nowiki>[</nowiki>[[Peter Gay]] notes in [[The Enlightenment: The Science of Freedom]] (NY: Norton, 1995, p. 277) that this is “a daring rhetorical question, since the prostituées du plus bas étage Diderot had in mind were not merely Boucher’s models but Louis XV’s mistresses”] The grace of his [[shepherdess]]es is the grace of Madame Favart in ''[[Rose and Colas]]''; that of his goddesses is borrowed from [[La Deschamps]]. I defy you to find a single blade of grass in any of his landscapes. And then there’s such a confusion of objects piled one on top of the other, so poorly disposed, so motley, that we’re dealing not so much with the pictures of a rational being as with the dreams of a madman." | ||
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| + | We may call this comment strangely and comically hypocrite, since Diderot is the author of ''[[Les Bijoux indiscrets]]'', a novel about talking vaginas which had come out 13 years earlier. | ||
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| + | Even more short-sighted is his love of [[Greuze]]. Maybe it is the love of one hypocrite for another? For was it not Greuze who presented us base eroticism under a thin veneer of academic respectability? Did he not give us moralizing paintings in defense of virginity such as ''[[The Broken Pitcher]]'' while at the same time exploit our basest appetites in works such as ''[[Ariadne]]'', ''[[The Sisters]]'' (1788) with the ripening breast of prepubscent girls. | ||
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Extracts from Diderot’s 1761 Salon [from Seznec / Adhémar, 1957, vol I]: via "A Dissertation on Invective"In 1957, Seznec, together with Jean Adhémar (q.v.) began issuing their four-volume edition of Denis Diderot's Paris Salon criticism, which Diderot had ...
Denis Diderot said of François Boucher:
- "I don’t know what to say about this man. Degradation of taste, color, composition, character, expression and drawing have kept pace with moral depravity. What can we expect this artist to throw onto the canvas? What he has in his imagination. And what can be in the imagination of a man who spends his life with prostitutes of the basest kind? [Peter Gay notes in The Enlightenment: The Science of Freedom (NY: Norton, 1995, p. 277) that this is “a daring rhetorical question, since the prostituées du plus bas étage Diderot had in mind were not merely Boucher’s models but Louis XV’s mistresses”] The grace of his shepherdesses is the grace of Madame Favart in Rose and Colas; that of his goddesses is borrowed from La Deschamps. I defy you to find a single blade of grass in any of his landscapes. And then there’s such a confusion of objects piled one on top of the other, so poorly disposed, so motley, that we’re dealing not so much with the pictures of a rational being as with the dreams of a madman."
We may call this comment strangely and comically hypocrite, since Diderot is the author of Les Bijoux indiscrets, a novel about talking vaginas which had come out 13 years earlier.
Even more short-sighted is his love of Greuze. Maybe it is the love of one hypocrite for another? For was it not Greuze who presented us base eroticism under a thin veneer of academic respectability? Did he not give us moralizing paintings in defense of virginity such as The Broken Pitcher while at the same time exploit our basest appetites in works such as Ariadne, The Sisters (1788) with the ripening breast of prepubscent girls.
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