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Diderot's Connoisseurship: Ethics and Aesthetics of the Art Trade
- Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 10, 1981
- pp. 227-237
- 10.1353/sec.1981.0012
- Article
- Additional Information
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D id e r o t's C o n n o is s e u r s h ip :ihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA E th ic s a n d A e s th e tic s o f th e A r t T r a d e M I C H A E L T . C A R T W R I G H T The place of Art in Society, and the strictures placed by certain social values on the function of Art, gave rise to very considerable problems in Diderot's mind, but one principle remained constant. Art, insofar as it can be abstracted from the vehicles of its expression, leads to the noble ideals of Beauty, Truth, and Goodness. As a theo retician and as a critic, Diderot's guiding motive was an elevation of Taste, both individual and public, leading to entirely beneficent un derstanding of the processes of the creative imagination. This very simple formula reflects in only the most general way the complex ramifications of the enquiry that has followed Lester Crocker's seminal work on subjectivism and objectivism in Diderot's aesthetics.1 It underscores a basic moral attitude which cannot be challenged, but which does indeed admit of interesting questions and interpretations if one cares to examine in detail certain functions of Diderot as critic of the plastic arts. For painting and sculpture, although they stimulate aesthetic enjoyment of the most elevated kind, are tinged with a danger inherent in their very material nature. They are objects, presented for our contemplation and, since they bear the indelible mark of the human presence, they arouse the de sire of annexation and possession. A work of literature, of music, or of the theatre can only be possessed through the shared medium of 227 228 / CARTWRIGHTihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA print or performance. The literary and the performing arts are there fore "purer" in a moral sense that Diderot would perhaps have been reluctant to admit, but which is easily deduced from a number of his pronouncements. I have chosen to approach this question through the notion of connoisseurship because "connoisseur" is a title that Diderot would not have refused, and at the same time it offers a challenge to the way in which he perceived himself as a critic. A few matters of definition are indispensable. In the middle part of the eighteenth century, the terms "amateur" and "connaisseur" were used to some extent indiscriminately, but in the RQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA S u p p le m e n t to the E n c y c lo p e d ie , Marmontel elaborates upon the meaning of the former term to give it an almost entirely pejorative cast: "la foule des ama teurs est composee d'une espece d'hommes qui, n'ayant par euxmemes ni qualites, ni talents qui les distinguent, et voulant etre distingues , s'attachent aux arts et aux lettres, comme le gui au chene, ou le lierre a Tonneau." The definition of "connaisseur" is consider ably milder: "en fait d'ouvrages de peintres, ou autres qui ont le des sein pour base, (connaisseur) renferme moins Tidee d'un gout decide pour cet art, qu'un discernement certain pour en juger." The author here is Landois, but one may suppose a general semantic distinction by which "amateur" implies the self-appointed expert whose taste depends at best upon the whim of fashion and who, at worst, has the presumption and the necessary force of patronage to dictate the technique of the artist. In the preliminary, remarks to the S a lo n of 1767, which appear to have inspired Marmontel's article, Diderot ful minates against the "race des amateurs," and not so much against their pretensions as against the way in which they "s'interposent entre I'homme opulent et Tartiste indigent; . . . font payer au talent la protection qu'ils lui accordent, qui lui ouvrent ou ferment les portes; qui se servent du besoin qu'il a d'eux pour disposer de son temps; qui le mettent a contribution; qui lui arrachent a vii prix ses meilleures productions; qui sont a l'affut, embusque [szc] derriere son chevalet."2 In this way the artist's...