What do you think?
Rate this book
Painting and Reality
The A.W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts.
out of print but wonderful and thorough. Bases his analysis of their relation on Aristotelian categories and shows how even phenomenologists and 20th c artists (Paul Klee for ex) use these categories actively. Highly recommend.
out of print but wonderful and thorough. Bases his analysis of their relation on Aristotelian categories and shows how even phenomenologists and 20th c artists (Paul Klee for ex) use these categories actively. Highly recommend.
- GenresArtPhilosophy
416 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1959
9 people are currently reading
145 people want to read
About the author
Étienne Gilson
234 books165 followersÉtienne Henri Gilson was born into a Roman Catholic family in Paris on 13 June 1884. He was educated at a number of Roman Catholic schools in Paris before attending lycée Henri IV in 1902, where he studied philosophy. Two years later he enrolled at the Sorbonne, graduating in 1907 after having studied under many fine scholars, including Lucien Lévy Bruhl, Henri Bergson and Emile Durkheim.
Gilson taught in a number of high schools after his graduation and worked on a doctoral thesis on Descartes, which he successfully completed (Sorbonne) in 1913. On the strength of advice from his teacher, Lévy Bruhl, he began to study medieval philosophy in great depth, coming to see Descartes as having strong connections with medieval philosophy, although often finding more merit in the medieval works he saw as connected than in Descartes himself. He was later to be highly esteemed for his work in medieval philosophy and has been described as something of a saviour to the field.
From 1913 to 1914 Gilson taught at the University of Lille. His academic career was postponed during the First World War while he took up military service. During his time in the army he served as second lieutenant in a machine-gun regiment and was awarded the Croix de Guerre for bravery upon relief from his duties. After the war, he returned to academic life at Lille and (also) Strasbourg, and in 1921 he took up an appointment at the Sorbonne teaching the history of medieval philosophy. He remained at the Sorbonne for eleven years prior to becoming Professor of Medieval Philosophy at the College de France in 1932. During his Sorbonne years and throughout his continuing career Gilson had the opportunity to travel extensively to North America, where he became highly influential as a historian and medievalist, demonstrating a number of previously undetermined important differences among the period’s greatest figures.
Gilson’s Gifford Lectures, delivered at Aberdeen in 1931 and 1932, titled ‘The Spirit of Medieval Philosophy’, were published in his native language (L’espirit de la philosophie medieval, 1932) before being translated into English in 1936. Gilson believed that a defining feature of medieval philosophy was that it operated within a framework endorsing a conviction to the existence of God, with a complete acceptance that Christian revelation enabled the refinement of meticulous reason. In this regard he described medieval philosophy as particularly ‘Christian’ philosophy.
Gilson married in 1908 and the union produced three children, two daughters and one son. Sadly, his wife died of leukaemia in late 1949. In 1951 he relinquished his chair at the College de France in order to attend to responsibilities he had at the Institute of Medieval Studies in Toronto, Canada, an institute he had been invited to establish in 1929. Gilson died 19 September 1978 at the age of ninety-four.
Gilson taught in a number of high schools after his graduation and worked on a doctoral thesis on Descartes, which he successfully completed (Sorbonne) in 1913. On the strength of advice from his teacher, Lévy Bruhl, he began to study medieval philosophy in great depth, coming to see Descartes as having strong connections with medieval philosophy, although often finding more merit in the medieval works he saw as connected than in Descartes himself. He was later to be highly esteemed for his work in medieval philosophy and has been described as something of a saviour to the field.
From 1913 to 1914 Gilson taught at the University of Lille. His academic career was postponed during the First World War while he took up military service. During his time in the army he served as second lieutenant in a machine-gun regiment and was awarded the Croix de Guerre for bravery upon relief from his duties. After the war, he returned to academic life at Lille and (also) Strasbourg, and in 1921 he took up an appointment at the Sorbonne teaching the history of medieval philosophy. He remained at the Sorbonne for eleven years prior to becoming Professor of Medieval Philosophy at the College de France in 1932. During his Sorbonne years and throughout his continuing career Gilson had the opportunity to travel extensively to North America, where he became highly influential as a historian and medievalist, demonstrating a number of previously undetermined important differences among the period’s greatest figures.
Gilson’s Gifford Lectures, delivered at Aberdeen in 1931 and 1932, titled ‘The Spirit of Medieval Philosophy’, were published in his native language (L’espirit de la philosophie medieval, 1932) before being translated into English in 1936. Gilson believed that a defining feature of medieval philosophy was that it operated within a framework endorsing a conviction to the existence of God, with a complete acceptance that Christian revelation enabled the refinement of meticulous reason. In this regard he described medieval philosophy as particularly ‘Christian’ philosophy.
Gilson married in 1908 and the union produced three children, two daughters and one son. Sadly, his wife died of leukaemia in late 1949. In 1951 he relinquished his chair at the College de France in order to attend to responsibilities he had at the Institute of Medieval Studies in Toronto, Canada, an institute he had been invited to establish in 1929. Gilson died 19 September 1978 at the age of ninety-four.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 5, 2019
Very challenging and extremely thorough. Gilson digs as deeply as he possibly can here and in spite of what seems to be an often labyrinthine route, both author and reader are rewarded with a clarity of vision and a slowly mounting joy that ascends step by step to a practically ecstatic conclusion. This book is in sore need of rediscovery by those convinced that modern art has no place within the Christian tradition of beauty and order.
Currently reading
October 3, 2024Po raz pierwszy decyduję się na napisanie czegoś o książce, zanim ją skończę. Jednak nie mogę się powstrzymać. Wcześniej niedostępne w języku polskim eseje Etienne'a Gilsona stanowią kompleksową i jednolitą książkę na temat ontologii i fenomenologii malarstwa. Sposób, w jaki książka jest napisana – skrupulatnie, niesamowicie dokładnie, z uwagą przyłożoną do każdego możliwego aspektu. Autor opisuje w drobiazgowych szczegółach coś, co można by nazwać aurą, opisywaną przez Waltera Benjamina – robi to absolutnie fenomenalnie. Intelekt i logika autora miażdżą współczesnych filozofów sztuki, nie zostawiając po nich śladu. Powolna i niesamowicie logiczna lektura przyprawia o wzruszenie, kiedy człowiek zdaje sobie sprawę z złożoności opisywanego tematu... Sprawia, że czytelnik czuje, że żyje.
Dziś nie ma już takich ludzi i nie ma już takich książek, a ja jestem pewnie jednym z niewielu, którzy jeszcze będą o nim pamiętać na długie, długie lata. Stare, niemodne spojrzenie na sztukę, zapomniane i takie, które sprawia, że zaczynamy kwestionować każdy moment naszego dotychczasowego istnienia.
Dziś nie ma już takich ludzi i nie ma już takich książek, a ja jestem pewnie jednym z niewielu, którzy jeszcze będą o nim pamiętać na długie, długie lata. Stare, niemodne spojrzenie na sztukę, zapomniane i takie, które sprawia, że zaczynamy kwestionować każdy moment naszego dotychczasowego istnienia.
Want to read
November 16, 2009Recommended by James Schall in Another Sort of Learning, Chapter 11, as one of Five Books about Art and Beauty.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews