Depictions of glassmaking in Diderot's Encyclopédie

Abstract

Between 1751 and 1765, Denis Diderot and Jean Le Rond d'Alembert published their Encyclopédie, in which they included hundreds of engraved images depicting and visually explaining artistic crafts and common trades in preindustrial France. Despite the interest scholars have displayed in the texts of the Encyclopédie - and in Diderot's writing on art in particular - the plates and their visual representation of the described crafts have received little attention. This article considers Diderot's career as both encyclopedist and art critic, and it examines the plates with his enlightened philosophical principles in mind in order to analyze how his art criticism, his biased evaluation of fine artists and their paintings, and his criticism of unrealistic history painting relate to his own commissioning of didactic art. Depictions of glassmaking are discussed and compared with those of similar large-scale manufactures, such as tapestry weaving, which promoted and glorified domestic production.