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" Every day we should hear at least one good song , read one good poem , see one exquisite picture , and , if possible , speak a few sensible words . " Johann Wolfgang von Goethe "

Friday 30 December 2011

' Denis Diderot' Louis Michel van Loo ( 1707-1771) Oil on canvas , circa 1767 . Musée du Louvre , Paris

diderot ....... Denis Diderot (1713-1784)was a French philosopher , art critic and writer . He was a leading figure , who together with Jean-Jacques Rousseau, had enormous intellectual influence during the Enlightenment ......In depicting Diderot bareheaded , Louis van Loo has broken the tradition of 18th century portraiture by painting Diderot minus his Whig . Whigs played a hugely important part in portraits of the period . Bare headed portraits showed the sitter to be an intellectual and free thinker.

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