Humanities: History

HUMANITIES 429 stantial income from land, thus bringing to a climax a process which had begun with the invasion of the borough seats by the gentry from the 1420's onward. A genuine regard for the views of the people on matters political was hardly a fifteenth-century development. Dr. Wilkinson has given us a book of documents which meets a widely felt need. It is more doubtful whether most scholars will feel inclined to accept the conclusions which he has built upon them. (J. R. LANDER) The Idea of Art as Propaganda in France, 1750-1799: A Study in the History of Ideas (University of Toronto Press, pp. xii, 184, $4.95) by James A. Leith is less concerned with art than with the history of ideas. Propaganda is interpreted as "any method of diffusing ideas" with neither pejorative nor exclusively political connotations; by art is meant mainly the visual arts. An introductory chapter explains how art patrons came to prefer their art to be ·utilitarian, to "instruct the mind by penetrating the soul," rather than purely aesthetic, "simply to delight the heart and please the eye." The titles of the next three chapters are self-explanatory-Diderot's "Views on the Social Function of Art"; "The Encyclopedia on the Utility of Art"; and "The Demand for Didactic Art under the Old Regime." The final chapters on the Revolution's varying success in mobilizing the arts are the most absorbing, since for the first time theories of didactic art were put into practice by great artists such as David. However, what emerges generally from this study is the ineffectiveness of efforts to use art as propaganda. Though by and large the rising bourgeoisie, the philosophes, the Church, and the Revolutionaries believed that art should serve some utilitarian purpose, though this ambition coincided with the ideals of French classicism and sensihilite, though the notion of didactic art was rooted in the western tradition, artists tended to refuse to paint what the theorists wanted. The sterility of the idea of art as propaganda resulted from equally strong forcesthe parallel tradition of art for art's sake; the concept of the artist. as a genius with his own vision who could not work to government order; the desire to preserve France's artistic heritage and hegemony; the conservatism of art patrons, including even Marigny himself; the changes of government and policy during the Revolution; and finally the inconsistencies of utilitarian theorists, even of doctrinaire republicans. These inconsistencies are particularly evident in Diderot whose complexities are only partly brought out by Dr. Leith. The Diderot who 430 LETTERS IN CANADA: 1965 praised Greuze's moralistic tableaux could not help admiring Chardin's still lifes and Vernet's landscapes. While · deploring what Dr. Leith calls Boucher's "undulating curves, provocative postures, inviting flesh and wanton gestures," Diderot could favourably describe a mythological abduction scene by La Grenee with the words: "C'est de la chair, c'est aprendre, a toucher, abaiser." Though in the Salon de 1765 he discredited Boucher's art in terms of his debauched life, Diderot had written to his mistress in 1762: "S'il faut opter entre Racine mechant epoux, mechant pere, ami faux et poete sublime, et Racine bon pere, bon epoux, bon ami et plat -honnete homme, je m'en tiens au premier." After attacking the atrocities of fanaticism in religious painting, he could reproach Le Mierre for attacking precisely the same thing. Finally the sentimental Diderot who could join Rousseau in affirming the essential goodness of human nature had a materialistic alter ego whose view of man came close to that of d'Holbach. · The chapters on Diderot and the Encyclopedie, which are the least good, contain a few errors. Modern critics are doubtful whether Diderot ever attended the College de Clermont or trained to become a Jesuit. It was not "for the sake of morality" that Diderot long remained a deist; from his earliest works his ethics had dispensed with God. The publication of the Encyclopedie was not "halted" in 1752 but in 1759. Finally, Diderot did not write the article "Legislateur"; this is generally attributed to Saint-Lambert whose views on state education are the...