Diderot on Art

The 18th-century French philosopher Denis Diderot - the principal intelligence behind the Encyclopedie and the author of idiosyncratic fictional works such as Jacques the Fatalist and Rameau's Nephew - is also considered by many to have been 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 his art-critical texts available in English. 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.