"In pictura summa sublimitas". Su una lettura militante di Plinio il Vecchio nella Francia del Settecento

Loredana Mancini

Abstract:

In 1745, Anne-Claude-Philippe, Count of Caylus, antiquarian, collector of antiquities and amateur artist, gave the members of the Académie des Inscriptions a lecture on the Elder Pliny's chapters on painting. His purpose was providing a new French version, assuming that the previous translators had been unable to convey the real meaning of the text, given their lack of mastery of art techniques and aesthetics. These premises result in a partisan interpretation of some passages in Pliny's chapters on art, supporting the author's fight for the regeneration of art against the bad taste of the rocaille style through a revival of the aesthetic rules of antiquity.