Lectures on Art - Selected Conferences from the Academie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, 1667- 1772

This book presents a critical selection of lectures from the Academie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, essential for understanding art theory and practice in France.

For the first time, a curated selection of the influential conferences from the Academie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture is presented in English. Spanning from 1667 to 1792, these lectures, delivered by prominent artists and enthusiasts of the academy in Paris, serve as foundational documents that shaped both the theory and practice of art. The principles articulated in these texts not only guided artistic endeavors in France but also resonated throughout Europe for two centuries.

In the 1800s, the prominence of the Academie began to decline, and as a result, only a handful of the 388 lectures were translated into English. This book, Lectures on Art - Selected Conferences from the Academie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, 1667-1772, addresses this gap by featuring a selection of forty-two of the most significant lectures. Scholars Christian Michel and Jacqueline Lichtenstein have meticulously chosen and annotated these texts, creating the first comprehensive collection of the academy's 'conferences' available to English-speaking audiences.

These lectures are essential for anyone looking to understand French art from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They illuminate the criteria that leading French artists considered when evaluating paintings and sculptures, the challenges they aimed to address in their work, and their perspectives on both their own artistic practices and those of their contemporaries. This collection not only enriches art historical scholarship but also provides valuable insights into the artistic culture of the time.