On Art

弗朗索瓦·基佐 / 冬初阳Guangxi Normal University Press · ChinaApr 2023

Rating 3.8
Word count
78K words
Chapters
8
ISBN
9787549599592

Tags

Essays and Miscellany Classical ArtsAesthetic EducationArt TheoryWestern ThoughtIllustrated GuideAcademic StudyCultural EssaysTraditional AestheticsCross-Cultural View

Summary

Guizot was not only a statesman and historian of keen insight but also a man of considerable artistic cultivation. This book is a record of his notes made while collecting remarkable artworks around the world, a classic work on art theory and connoisseurship. It explores the relationships and differences among the arts, and because it also includes descriptions of certain historical details, it is of great historical significance. In this book he sifted through the works of the masters he had studied, retaining only those he deemed still of interest, whether because of the famous figures or events depicted or because of their important place in art history. Through the study of these works, he sets forth in a highly personal way the connections and differences among painting, sculpture, and engraving, focusing chiefly on the Italian and French schools. The book is richly illustrated: each work is accompanied by both an engraving and the original painting, and this juxtaposition makes it feel as though one is standing in an art gallery, experiencing the moving power of the paintings firsthand. The translation is based on the English version by Guizot's assistant George Grove, made under Guizot's guidance and authorized by him as the authoritative English translation. This is also the first Chinese translation of the work.

Editor's review

The Theory of Art is a distinctive intellectual product of the nineteenth-century French historian and statesman François Guizot. Unlike his well-known works on political history, this book turns its attention to art and explores the deep connections between art, society, and the course of civilization. With his deep historical erudition and statesman's vision, Guizot attempts to construct a grand framework for the sociology of art. In his view, art is not an isolated aesthetic phenomenon but a concentrated expression of the spirit, social structure, and state of civilization of a particular era. The book maintains a rational, analytical tone throughout, examining art within the dimensions of history and the comparison of civilizations. This perspective was pioneering in nineteenth-century European intellectual circles and offered important inspiration for later research in the sociology of art. The value of reading this book lies not only in understanding a historian's distinctive interpretation of art but also in experiencing the intellectual appeal of crossing disciplinary boundaries in search of general laws. For today's readers, it may lack delicate emotional analysis of specific works, but its grand historical narrative and cool rational dissection can still open a different window onto our understanding of the relationship between art and society.

Who it's for

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Reading tips

  1. Read in the context of nineteenth-century European history to better understand the context and concerns of Guizot's argument
  2. Compare Guizot's view of art history with those of Winckelmann, Taine, and others to grasp the intellectual lineage
  3. The theoretical framework is grand and some arguments abstract; slow down appropriately and take notes to organize them

About the publisher

Guangxi Normal University Press China · Founded in 1986

Guangxi Normal University Press is a publisher known for literature, foreign literature and history titles. Its 1,175 books in the database show a solid accumulation in classics and prose collections, including foreign literary works such as Les Fleurs du mal: Annotated Poems of Baudelaire, Snow Country, Dubliners and The Wild Palms, as well as modern prose compilations like The Complete Prose of Zhou Zuoren. History and philosophy also hold a notable share, with titles such as Running Dogs: Clerks and Runners in Qing County Yamen and The History and Thought of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom reflecting attention to Qing local administration and modern history. In art literature there is the 16-volume Ten Bamboo Studio Painting and Calligraphy Manual. Its author resources include foreign writers Charles Baudelaire and Yasunari Kawabata, translators and annotators Liu Nanqi and Zou Bo, and scholars such as Zhong Shuhe, Bradly W. Reed and You Chenjun. As public information is limited, this characterization is based only on the books in the database, which together present a profile balancing Chinese and foreign literary classics with academic works in the humanities and social sciences.

Contents

  1. 版权信息
  2. 前言
  3. 版画插图列表
  4. Ⅰ 绘画、雕塑与版画：关联与差异
  5. Ⅱ 意大利画派和法兰西画派绘画评述
  6. i 意大利画派
  7. ii.法兰西画派
  8. 附录

FAQ

How is this book different from common art histories or introductions to art? The book's core is not to trace the evolution of artistic styles or explain basic art knowledge, but to explore, from the perspective of a historian and statesman, the causal and expressive relationship between art and social structures and civilizational forms. It is more speculative and sociological in character.
Does reading this book require a strong foundation in philosophy or history? Guizot's argument has a strong flavor of the philosophy of history, and some background in modern European history and intellectual history will help with understanding. But the book's arguments are relatively focused, and patient readers can grasp its core threads.
Are the book's arguments outdated today? The specific conclusions inevitably bear the limitations of the nineteenth century, but its core methodology of examining art within a broad social and historical context, as well as its interdisciplinary vision, remain instructive and make it one of the important texts for understanding the origins of the sociology of art.

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About the author

弗朗索瓦·基佐 Author

François Guizot is a well-known French historian and political figure whose works are usually classified in the Chinese book market under history and miscellaneous prose. Two of his works are currently included in the collection: The Other Half of European History and On Art. The former focuses on organizing and narrating the course of European history, while the latter reflects the author's thinking on art and cultural issues. Public information about Guizot's early life, education, and specific offices is limited, so it is not elaborated here. Judging from the works available, his writing combines a historian's attention to sources with an essayist's reflective tone; the prose is unhurried and skilled at detailed analysis within a broad historical framework. The Other Half of European History may be regarded as representative of his historical writing, while On Art displays a vision spanning history and the arts. Taken together, the two works show that his interests are not confined to chronological events but center more on the connections between the progress of civilization and aesthetic taste, allowing Chinese readers to gain an initial sense of this author's basic profile in historical and artistic discussion.

冬初阳 Author

Dong Chuyang is an author about whom little public information is available. Two works by this author are currently held in the collection: Hell on the Eastern Front: The Eastern Front Diary of a German Anti-Tank Soldier (1941–1942) and On Art. These two titles span quite different subject areas. One concerns the military history of the Eastern Front in the Second World War, drawing on the diary of a German anti-tank soldier to present the perspective of someone who experienced the war firsthand; the other falls within the field of art theory or art essays. The common categories assigned to these works in the collection, Military and Essays and Miscellanea, likewise reflect this cross-genre approach. Because details such as dates of birth and death, nationality, education, and writing career are unknown, no further account of the author's life can be given. On the basis of the available works alone, Dong Chuyang's writing appears to combine the compilation of historical sources with essayistic discussion, and may appeal to readers interested in both military reportage and art.