Abstract

MARGOT, Jean-Paul. The Revaluation of 17th Century Dutch Painting in France: Thoré, Taine and Fromentin. Bol. estét. [online]. 2021, n.56, pp.1-10. ISSN 2408-4417.  http://dx.doi.org/10.36446/be.2021.56.280.

Théophile Thoré-Bürger, Hippolyte Taine and Eugène Fromentin re-valuated Dutch painting of the Golden Age in the horizon opened by Hegel’sLessons on Aesthetics. The very essence of the Hegelian legacy rests on the a priori conviction that 17th century Dutch painting is the expression of the spirit of the age. Even so, if we exclude Taine´s exag-gerated sociological and ideological orientation of “criticism without art”, we find in Thoré-Bürger, and especially in Fromentin, some inter-pretations that come close to the concept of “work of art as product of human activity” and simultaneously move away from a “realism” condi-tioned by historical determinism.

Keywords : Aesthetics of Painting: Dutch Golden Age; Hegel; Criticism; Realism.