Jean-Baptiste Du Bos: Reflections on Genius and Art

Abstract

In 1719 Jean-Baptiste Du Bos publishes his treatise Réflexions Critiquessur la Poésia et sur la Peinture, which Voltaire has called ‘the mostuseful book that has ever be written on the subject by any Europeannation’. In his book the author deals with the problem of artisticgenius, a phenomenon that was in focus from late 17th century inmany treatises on theory of art, especially in France and England.This article concentrates on the interpretation of this particularidea in the work of Du Bos, who tries to explain it through a widerange of empirical examples, using the latest achievements fromdifferent branches of science. His concept of ‘physiological genius’and ‘climatic genius’ can be seen as unique. His reflections onsensation-based aesthetic experience and the new way of definingthe relationship between the artist-genius and the dilettante artexperiencer, influenced later 18th century authors who wrote aboutart theory and aesthetics (Lessing, Home, Herder, even Kant). DuBos's idea of wider public engagement with art, and art appreciation,becomes relevant in the 18th and 19th centuries, so one can say that inmany respects Du Bos's treatment is ahead of its time and that theseideas are also relevant in the contemporary context.