Ive found that Quatremère de Quincys writings provide an essential starting point to the origins of the public art museum. I am most pleased to see that thanks to this marvelously lucid translationwhich is accompanied by a most instructive introduction placing him in historical contextthat a seminal book by this very influential early modernist theorist is accessible to an English- speaking audience. -- David Carrier, author, Museum Skepticism: A History of the Display of Art in Public Galleries (2006) This new book contributes to the essential task of restoring Quatremère de Quincy to a central place in the history of aesthetics, and does so in a unique fashion by focusing on one of Quatremères lesser-known theoretical works, one that confirms Quatremères place among the most philosophically artful of all nineteenth century art historians and aesthetic theorists. Michel-Antoine Xhignesse situates Quatremères unique contribution within the context of then-current debates about the relative virtues of real or ideal imitation in artistic production. Quatremères commitment to the moral and spiritual value of the visual arts rendered him a veritable metaphysician of aesthetics, as well as a consummate evangelist of Neoclassicism. This work also shows him as a theorist of the first rank. It makes an exemplary contribution to the history of art and ideas. -- Louis A. Ruprecht Jr., Georgia State University Quatremere de Quincy was the leading French aesthetician at the turn of the nineteenth century, but little of his work has ever been translated into English. Xhignesses informative introduction and crystalline translation makes Quatremeres 1805 essay readily accessible. In this welcome addition to the literature of the history of aesthetics we can see how Quatremere reached back to the Greeks but also prepared the way for a modern emphasis on the imagination. A fascinating bridge between Classicism and Romanticism is thus revealed, one who should take his place alongside such giants as Winckelmann, Hegel, and Schopenhauer. -- Paul Guyer, Brown University & University of Pennsylvania Quatremère de Quincys treatise, On the Ideal in the Pictorial Arts, is not only interesting for its place in an important period of modern aesthetic theory, it reinvigorates familiar debates about beauty, creativity, and artistic freedom. Xhignesses translation of the text is smooth and readable, and his indispensable introduction places this work in historical context. Michel Xhignesse is to be thanked for informing Anglophone philosophers of the works of a figure in the history of aesthetics that few know. -- Carolyn Korsmeyer, University at Buffalo
