The Arcades Project - Operi

Note the rigor and elegance of the title Curiosilifs esthitiques.l82 [J38a,3]
The teachings of Fourier: Although, in nature, there are certain plants which are
more or less holy, certain ... animals more or less sacred; and although ... we
may rightly conclude that certain nations . .. have been prepared . .. by Providence
for a determined goal . .. -nevertheless all I wish to do here is assert their
equal utility in the eyes of Him who is undefinable.?? Ch. B., Oeuvres, vol. 2, p. 143
("Exposition Universelle, 1855"). HI:{ [J38a,4]
"Onc of those narrow-minded modern professors of aesthetics (as they are called
by Heinrieh Heine), ... whose stiffened fingers, paralyzed by the pen, can no
longer nm with agility over the immense keyboard of co, . respondencesr' eh. B.,
Oeuvres, vol. 2, p. 145 C'Exposition Universelle, 1855" ).U!4 [J38a,5]
"In the manifold productions of art, there is something always new which will
forever escape the rules and analyses of the school!" eh. B., Oeuvres, vol. 2,
p. 146 ("Exposition Universelle, 1855").1 115 Analogy to fashion. [J38a,6]
To the notion of progress in the history of art, Bandelaire opposes a monadological
conception. "Transferred into the sphere of the imagination . .. , the idea of
progress looms up with gigantic absurdity . ... In the poetic and artistic order,
inventors rarely have predecessors. Every flowering is spontaneous, individual.
Was Signorelli really the begetter of Michelangelo? Did Perugino contain
Raphael? The artist depends on himself alone. He can promise notlling to future
centuries except his own works!' Ch. B., Oeuvres, vol. 2, p. 149 ("Exposition
Universelle, 1855"). I86 [J38a,7]
Toward a critique of the concept of progress in general: " For this is how disciples
of the philosophers of steam and sulfur matches understand it: progress appears
to them only in the form of an indefinite series. Where is that gual'anteeT' eh. B.,
Oeuvres, vol. 2, p. 149 C'Exposition UniverseUe, 1855").11\7 [J38a,8]
"The story is told of Balzac . .. that one day he found himself in front of a . ..
melancholy winter scene, heavy with hoarfrost and thinly sprinkled with cottages
and wretched-looking peasants; and that, after gazing at a little house from which
a thin wisp of smoke was rising, he cried, 'How beautiful it is! But what are they
doing in that cottage? What are their thoughts? What are their sorrows? Has it
been a good harvest? No doubt they have bills to pay?' Laugh if you will at M. de
Balzac. I do not know the name of the painter whose honor it was to set the great
novelises soul a-quiver with anxiety and conjecture; hut I think that in this way
... he has given ns an excellent lesson in criticism. You will often find me appraising
a picture exclusivcly for the sum of ideas or of dreams that it suggests to my
mind." Ch. B., Oeuvres, vol. 2, p. 147 ("Exposition Universelle, 1855" ).IHH
[J39,1]