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I’ve just finished reading Diderot and the Art of Thinking Freely by Andrew S. Curran (Pub 2019.) Before starting this biography, I had thought of Diderot as an 18th century French philosopher and polymath who corresponded with Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia. A few years ago I’d read a Catherine biography and knew that she’d had an extensive list of forward thinking correspondents. I was interested to read about other thinkers of the enlightenment period. This was a thoroughly enjoyable read that I would highly recommend.
Diderot was a contemporary of two other equally renowned French philosophes: Voltaire and Rousseau, as well as famous revolutionary Americans Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. All of these free thinkers read the writings of one another, and when possible (which, due to the time period and the constraints of transportation, was not very often) discussed art, science, politics, sex, religion, theatre, education, and a wealth of other topics, in person. It is amusing to note that competition, bribery, gossip, greed, scoff laws both governmental and religious, and human nature, haven’t changed much in 250 years. The 1700s were full of every vice, addiction, and temptation available to us today. They just unfolded at a more leisurely pace.
What I did not expect to discover, and this surprised me, was that Diderot was an art critic. In fact, there is an entire chapter, Chapter Seven, entitled On Art: Diderot at the Louvre. (Anyone who knows me, knows how much I love the Louvre. I would be happy to live inside its walls without ever seeing the sun again for the rest of my life!) Diderot was a regular contributor to a newspaper Literary Correspondence, to which all the major heads of state at the time subscribed. Diderot apparently enjoyed this job of communicating directly and regularly with the movers and shakers of the time.
(my photo of Venus de Milo from my 2016 trip - amazing to see in person!)
A result of his association with Correspondence was that Diderot was assigned the job of reviewing the biannual Salons at the Louvre from 1759 to 1781, which included nine Salons. Each Salon began in late August, and was juried to represent all of the best art available at the time. Paintings included genre scenes, portraits, still lifes, landscapes, and historical scenes. When one remembers that photography was still a few decades away, one can understand why such an event was so well attended. The Salon was the one chance every two years that most people might ever see such scenes, a close-up portrait of a king, or even a replication of the seashore.
Because the event was free to the public, it was always crowded. Diderot spent a lot of time at the salon listening to the opinions of other patrons including the rich, the poor, the elderly, and even children. He had a blistering sense of humor, a lightening quick wit, and was an indefatigable conversationalist with an “unrestrained tongue.” He claimed these dialogues informed his critiques.
When not at the Salons, Diderot tried to view as much public and privately held art as possible. He also spoke extensively with painters and sculptors. Jean-Baptiste Simeon Chardin was a personal friend, and a Diderot favorite. Francois Boucher, painter of odalisques, was the unfortunate recipient of Diderot’s scorn: “This man has everything, except truth.” His assertion that Boucher “didn’t blush at prostrating his own wife” and wasted his time painting “chubby and ruddy asses” had me laughing out loud. It seems that what the forward thinking Diderot liked to write about (many of his writings focused on the sexual and all forms of physical pleasure) he did not care to see replicated in paint!
Two of his reviews are repeated in part in Chapter 7; they are emotional and at times political. Diderot, the most famous atheist of his century, was always skirting the limits of what king and court, or parish and Pope, might take offence with or, if he was lucky, ignore; which is why he once found himself unluckily imprisoned for three months. Censorship!
Diderot also admired painters Jean-Baptiste Greuze and Jacques-Louis David (whom I wrote about in a previous blog in January 2020). In many of his critiques, Diderot spoke as if placing himself within the painting or actually speaking conversationally to the painting itself. In his Notes On Painting Diderot wrote “To make virtue attractive, vice odious, ridiculousness salient, such is the project of any honest man [or woman I would think!] who takes up the pen, the paintbrush, or the chisel.”
While Diderot was not a painter himself, he made efforts to understand as much as he could about art, and then translated his thinking about the visual into the written word for posterity. Andrew Curran has an easy and humorous writing style and makes digesting life in the seventeen hundreds painless and fun. Once again: highly recommended!
During the month of January I took in an online class called The Grammar of Visual Language. It was not very interactive, although people did get to pose questions. I don't usually participate in discussions in large groups anyway, preferring to voice questions or opinions in much smaller groups. I should also add that the teacher, Marianne Mitchell, is an accomplished abstract artist who currently resides east of me near Philadelphia. I have wanted to study with her for a couple years, but always thought I would need to travel, stay overnight, etc. And then Covid happened, and almost all classes became available in Zoom rooms.
This group consisted of 37 people, so I listened a lot. There was talk about line, texture, shape, value, and color. I generally sit in on Marianne's free WAM (Whole Art Mastery) Wednesday discussions that she holds once a month. I am learning so much about the emotions and personal feelings that go into paintings, which for me, up until now, have held a back seat to the more technical aspects of paint application. I would really like to pursue the emotions of color and the attraction of texture in painting - almost like relief sculpture - but first I need to educate myself with some new techniques.
I am excited about moving beyond just copying what is in front of me. For a long time I have felt stagnated with realism. And while I would never abandon it entirely, I do feel photography has rendered photo-realism somewhat obsolete. The manipulations available through photographic software like Photoshop, ArtRage, etc., have made it possible to create such amazingly beautiful photographs, that I feel like that baton has been passed. Contemporary art based in realism needs something extra, be it texture, unusual points of view, unusual color choices, or the combining of multiple mediums.
Before signing up for another workshop, one dealing with texture, I plan to let the Grammar discussions marinate in my brain for a while. Knowing which direction I want to go in is only a small part of the puzzle. I am in transition and looking forward to the work ahead. Thanks for stopping by and for sticking with me on my art journey!
