This volume focuses on the aesthetic thought of French painter Anne-Louis Girodet (1767-1824). Girodet, who was one of Jacques-Louis David's most interesting pupils, devoted himself not only to painting but also to writing works on art (i.e., poems and academic addresses) which he considered very significant. However, such writings have often been underestimated and even criticized as poor literary works. The author of the present volume, on the contrary, aims to foreground Girodet's approach to aesthetics and to argue its importance within the context of Neoclassicism.
Girodet's writings address in original ways the key themes of the aesthetic debate of his time, i.e., the relationship between art and nature, originality and tradition, grace and the sublime. His work revolves around the central notion that art is not the imitation of nature (i.e., of what exists and is perceived by the senses), but rather the illusory evocation of what is dead or non-existent. In representing a metaphysical dimension, art moves beyond the mere mimetic function: its aim is not to deceive the eye (tromper les yeux) with seductive illusionism, but to "deceive death", i.e., to infuse into the beholder the consoling illusion (even though he/she is aware of its unreal quality) that death can be defeated..
The analysis of Girodet's aesthetic thought reveals, among others, strong affinities with Ugo Foscolo's critical and literary works. Such affinities can be explained in light of their shared interest in Rousseau's notion of illusion and especially in light of French writings about tombs, which attributed to sepulchres the consoling function of generating the illusion that "thanatos" may be beaten.