Philosophy of Art by Hippolyte Taine

First published:Philosophie de l’art: Leçons professées à l’École des Beaux-Arts, 1865 (English translation, 1865)

Type of work: Art history and philosophy

The Work:

Hippolyte Taine combines a historical interest in his subjects with an interest that is philosophical. Two of his wide-ranging works are Histoire de la littérature anglaise (1863-1864, 4 vols.; The History of English Literature, 1871) and Les Origines de la France contemporaine (1876-1894, 6 vols.; The Origins of Contemporary France, 1876-1894). In his studies, he regarded history and philosophy as sciences; he believed that a study of the nature of art and of art production could proceed, in the manner of any scientific study, by attention to the observable facts and by the framing of inductive generalizations. Consequently, his Philosophy of Art is to some extent a description of some predominant art periods and to some extent an attempt to generalize philosophically from the data of his historical inquiries. Taine’s studies include those of the art of Greece, the Netherlands, and Italy.

Taine’s working assumption is that no work of art is isolated, and that the only way to understand a particular work of art or the nature of art in general is by attending to the conditions that lead to a work of art. According to this theory, the character of a work of art is determined by the artist, but that artist is shaped by a number of inescapable cultural influences. Taine believes that works of art present, in perceptible form, the essential character of the time and place in which the artist works. In his words, “The work of art is determined by an aggregate which is the general state of the mind and surrounding manners.” Taine points out, for example, that the nude statues of Greek art reflect the Grecian preoccupation with war and athletics and with the development of the healthy human animal; that the art of the Middle Ages reflects the moral crisis resulting from feudal oppression; that the art of the seventeenth century reflects the values of courtly life; and that the art of industrial democracy expresses the restless aspirations of human beings in an age of science.

The work of art itself is conditioned by the wholes of which it is a part and a product. In the first place, according to Taine, the work of art exhibits the artist’s style, that prevailing mode of aesthetic treatment that runs through all the works of an artist, giving them an underlying resemblance to one another. Second, the work of art reflects the prevailing manner of the school of artists to which the individual artist belongs. Finally, it expresses the times and the social milieu of taste, conviction, and manners within which the artist is working and by which he or she must be affected. Taine summarizes his belief when he writes that “to comprehend a work of art, an artist or a group of artists, we must clearly comprehend the general social and intellectual condition of the times to which they belong.”

In addition to the influence of taste and style, Taine also believes in considering “moral temperature,” the spiritual milieu, whether mystic or pagan or something foreign to both, that infects the artist and, consequently, his or her work. The philosophy of art, as Taine understands it, is the attempt to study the art of various countries and ages to discover the conditions under which the art of a particular place and time is created and, finally, the conditions in general for any art whatsoever. A report of those general conditions would be a philosophy of art.

In examining individual works of art, the first step in aesthetics, Taine finds that imitation is an important feature in most of them, particularly in works of poetry, sculpture, and painting. Taine is interested in arriving by inductive means at a theory of the nature of art. He speculates whether exact imitation is perhaps the ultimate goal of art, but he concludes that it is not because exact imitation does not produce the finest works of art. Photography, for example, is useful as a means of making accurate reproductions of scenes, but he does not believe that it can be ranked with such fine arts as painting and sculpture. Another reason for concluding that works of art are not essentially concerned with exact imitation is that many works of art are intentionally inexact.

There is a kind of imitation, however, that is essential to art, according to Taine, and that is the imitation of what he calls “the relationships and mutual dependence of parts.” Just as a painter, even when reproducing a human figure, does not represent every feature of the body—its exact size, color, and weight—but rather what might be called the logic of the body, so artists in general, in creating works of art, do not aim at deception through exact representation but, rather, at presenting the essential character of an object. Because the essential character of an object is simply the predominant feature of the object as affected by the place and time of its existence, the artist’s objective, according to Taine’s analysis, is to put that principal feature of the object into perceptible form. In painting a lion, for example, the important thing is to represent him as carnivorous; in painting the Low Countries the artist must imitate their alluvial character.

Taine knows that the artist is often doing something quite different from making the dominant feature of nature the predominant feature of the work of art, but he believes that all art can be explained as the imitation of essential quality. What the artist presents may be not the essential character of some physical scene or object; it may be the prevailing temper of the times. This view is made clear in part 2 of Philosophy of Art, in which Taine considers artistic production. The first part, on the nature of art, concludes with the summary statement that

The end of a work of art is to manifest some essential or salient character, consequently some important idea, clearer and more completely than is attainable from real objects. Art accomplishes this end by employing a group of connected parts, the relationships of which it systematically modifies.

The law of art production—that a work of art is determined by the general state of mind and surrounding circumstances—Taine defends in two ways. He refers to experience to argue that the law of production applies to all works of art; he then analyzes the effects of “a general state of mind and surrounding circumstances” to claim that the law reveals a necessary connection. As an example, Taine considers the effect of melancholy as a state of mind, with the circumstances that make melancholy characteristic of an age. He argues that in a melancholy age the artist is inevitably melancholy. As a result, the artist portrays all objects as being predominantly melancholy, painting “things in much darker colors.” During a renaissance, when there is “a general condition of cheerfulness,” the works of art will express a joyful condition. Whatever the combination of moods in an age, the art of that age will reflect the combination. It could not be otherwise, Taine argues, because artists cannot isolate themselves from their age. As historical examples, he refers to the Greek period, the feudal age, the seventeenth century, and the nineteenth century.

A “general situation” resulting from a condition of wealth or poverty, or of servitude or liberty, or from a prevailing religious faith, or from some other feature of the society, has an effect on individual artists, affecting their aptitudes and emotions.

In Greece we see physical perfection and a balance of faculties which no manual or cerebral excess of life deranges; in the Middle Ages, the intemperance of overexcited imaginations and the delicacy of feminine sensibility; in the seventeenth century, the polish and good breeding of society and the dignity of aristocratic salons; and in modern times, the grandeur of unchained ambitions and the morbidity of unsatisfied yearnings.

According to Taine, the four terms of a causal series by reference to which the production of art can be explained are the general situation, the tendencies and special faculties provoked by that situation, the individual who represents and embodies the tendencies and faculties, and the material—such as sounds, forms, colors, or language—by the use of which the character is given sensuous form. Taine argues that artists imitate the prevailing quality of their age because they cannot escape being a part of their age, because nothing else would be accepted, and because they work for acceptance and applause.

Philosophy of Art is a clear and sensible defense of the idea that art reflects the Zeitgeist, or the spirit of the times. Opposing his position are those theories that emphasize the role of extraordinary individuals, those eccentrics who by their genius transcend the perspectives and sentiments of their age. The attempt to reconcile these two basic philosophical perspectives only hides the truth that resides in each. The moral seems to be to read Taine for an appreciation of the influence of the social milieu, and to read someone else, say Friedrich Nietzsche, for an aesthetics in which the artist is shown as an individual rebel who falsifies nature.

Bibliography

Dewald, Jonathan. Lost Worlds: The Emergence of French Social History, 1815-1970. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2006. Assesses the role of Taine and other nineteenth and twentieth century French intellectuals in creating an interest in social history and private life, among other topics.

Eustis, Alvin. Hippolyte Taine and the Classical Genius. 1951. Reprint. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981. A short work that focuses on Taine’s assessment of classical society and its artists, noting the importance the critic places on social conditions and on the production of high-quality art.

Gullace, Giovanni. “The Concept of Art in Taine and Brunetière.” In Taine and Brunetière on Criticism. Lawrence, Kans.: Coronado Press, 1982. Excellent analysis of Taine’s ideas about art in his Philosophy of Art. Extracts salient comments from this work, and provides a summary of the critic’s principal beliefs about the objective qualities of all great art.

Kahn, Sholom J. Science and Aesthetic Judgment: A Study in Taine’s Critical Method. 1953. Reprint. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1970. A scholarly examination of Taine’s writings on art, exploring how he is able to balance the need for objective analysis with the more elusive art of judgment, especially value judgment. Emphasizes the importance of the historical dimensions of art criticism.

Murray, Chris., ed. “Hippolyte Taine (1828-93).” In Key Writers on Art: From Antiquity to the Nineteenth Century. New York: Routledge, 2003. A brief but comprehensive entry on the cultural significance of Taine’s theories of art and art production. The volume includes an index.

Weinstein, Leo. Hippolyte Taine. New York: Twayne, 1972. General biographical study of Taine. Discusses his analysis of the nature of art and the conditions necessary for its production. Examines his judgments on the art of Europe, his notion of the ideal, and the emphasis he places on personal and national character in creating great art.