Preamble to the 1763 Salon

This address does not appear in the Correspondance littéraire. It has been added in the Vandeul and Leningrad copies.

Officially the Salons were ordered by the king. But it's unlikely that Diderot is praising Louis XIV here. Rather, he is probably thinking of Colbert, who instigated the first Salons, held in one of the courtyards of the Palais-Royal in 1667. In 1666, Colbert had created the Académie de France in Rome, and in 1676 had a Règlement pour l'établissement des écoles académiques de peinture et de sculpture dans toutes les villes du royaume où elles seront jugées nécessaires adopted. It is this whole scheme, conceived by Colbert, that gives the Salons the political significance that Diderot celebrates here. Diderot had already praised Colbert in the Art article of the Encyclopédie: "Colbert regarded the industry of the people & the establishment of manufactures, as the surest wealth of a kingdom. In the judgment of those who today have sound ideas of the value of things, he who populated France with engravers, painters, sculptors & artists of all kinds ; who surprised the English with the stocking-making machine, the Genoese with velvet, the Venetians with ice, did little less for the state, than those who defeated its enemies, & took away their strongholds; & in the eyes of the philosopher, there is perhaps more real merit in having given birth to the le Bruns, the le Sueurs & the Audrans ; to paint & engrave the battles of Alexander, & execute in tapestry the victories of our generals, than there is to have won them. " (Encyclopédie, I, 1751, 714a)

Competition between artists was in fact already instituted upstream of the Salon, with the creation of the Prix de Rome, which made it possible to consider a trip to Italy.

Entrance to the Salon was free: all social classes could therefore gain access and, in fact, according to Diderot's testimony, a wide variety of visitors could be encountered...

" Recreation, n. Relaxation of the mind, pleasant entertainment. Animi relaxatio." (Trévoux)

Asyndète: the point-vigurle marks a strong opposition. Admittedly, it's a single person, a genius, who marks the beginning of an artistic era, a school, a style. But it's a whole environment that goes on to constitute the era, the school and the style. It's this environment that Diderot refers to as "general taste".

" Goust, also means in the Arts the particular character of works, & the manner, good or bad, of those who make them. The goût Gothic. The goût of the School of Rome is good for drawing; that of the School of Lombardy is charming for coloring. A great goût for drawing, a goût that's brand new, a goût that's particular. On employe ce mot en parlant des bâtimens, des statuës, des tableaux, & de tout ce qui est bien inventé & travaillé. The goût of the Greeks was best for bâtimens. Some have the goût of Poussin's paintings, others of Rubens. Good taste consists in forming as perfect an idea of things as one can, & following it." (Trévoux) Taste is taken here in an objective sense (the definition of a style, a way of painting or doing things, on which everyone agrees), as opposed to subjective taste, to which the modern sense of the word corresponds (everyone's taste; we don't discuss tastes and colors).

"We call Arts libéraux, artes liberales, as opposed to méchaniques, those which participate more in the mind than in the work of the hand ; which consist more in connoissance than in operation; which regard more entertainment & curiosity than servile & mechanical works; such are Grammar, Rhetoric, Painting, Sculpture, Architecture, Music, which are called the seven Liberal Arts. [...] This word comes from the Latin liberalis, which was said in Rome of people who were not slaves..." (Trévoux) Liberal education is therefore, in antiquity, the education of free men, which Diderot identifies, for the modern era, with "well-born" children.
See also in the Encyclopédie the article Musique, prix de, (Antiq. Grecq.), by Chevalier de Jaucourt (X, 1765, 903a)

By poetry, we must here understand dramatic poetry. Allusion to the Games, during which theatrical competitions were held in Athens. In 538 BC, Pisistratus organized the first tragedy competition. The three main theater festivals were the Country Dionysia, the Lenean Dionysia and the Great Dionysia. To compete, a complete tetralogy had to be performed before the people (three tragedies and a satyr drama). Ten judges drawn from among the citizens decided on the winners. (There were several prizes, mainly symbolic: the winning poet received an ivy wreath). The public also judged the archon organizing the games.

10Diderot here paraphrases the Eloquence from Voltaire's Encyclopédie: "It should be noted that Greece was the only country on earth where the laws of eloquence were then known, because it was the only one where true eloquence existed. [...] True eloquence began to appear in Rome in the time of the Gracchi, and was only perfected in the time of Cicero. [...] This eloquence perished with the republic, as did that of Athens. Sublime eloquence, it is said, belongs only to liberty; that is, it consists in telling bold truths, displaying strong reasons & paintings. Often a master dislikes truth, fears reasons, & prefers a delicate compliment to broad strokes." (V, 1755, 529b) Tacitus had already developed this idea in the Dialogue of the Orators, §35-37.

" Tribute, s. m. Royalty that one state is obliged to pay to another [...]. Said figuratively in moral matters, & signifies, Pain, right, duty, tribute, respect. [Praise and esteem are a kind of tribute due to merit. Bell." (Trévoux)

Compare with "the general taste" above, which was a single taste. "Goust, figuratively said in Morality of the judgments, choice, & discernment of the mind. Existimatio, judicium." (Trévoux) Objective taste, as it multiplies, slides towards what will become subjective taste.

Each painter, in short, paints for an ideal viewer whose taste will be different. From the painter's style, we move on to the viewer's taste.

"It is believed that Vertumne, whose name means to turn, to change, marked the year & its variations. It was right to pretend that the god took on different figures to please Pomona, that is, to bring fruit to maturity." (Encyclopédie, article Vertumne, XVII, 1765, 185b) Vertumnis quotquot sunt natus iniquis ("born of a multitude of Vertumnes", Horace, Satires, II, 7) is the epigraph to Neveu de Rameau, which Diderot composed in parallel, and secretly, in the 1760s.

Voltaire was then living in Ferney, on the Swiss border, a few kilometers from Lake Geneva.

Diderot wrote the Salons at home in the evening, after visiting the Salon during the day.

Compare with Diderot's despondency once Dorval had left, in the Entretiens sur le Fils naturel: "et j'écris des lignes faibles, tristes et froides" (DPV X 84)

"If you know anything fairer than these lines, let me know in simplicity, otherwise make use of mine." (Horace, Epîtres, I, 1, 8-9, Diderot abbreviates.)

Diderot explains his way of working. The booklet is the canvas from which he composes his account and writes his descriptions.