Learning outcomes

This course explores the concept of the work of art through a central paradox. Although the notion plays a key role both in aesthetic theory and in the practical organisation of museums, it is neither a cultural invariant nor a universal category. The modern concept of the work of art appears to have taken shape in the eighteenth century, alongside the development of collections, the opening of the first public museums, and the rise of art criticism.

The course therefore asks how objects produced in a wide range of historical and cultural contexts come to be regarded as works of art. After examining the emergence of the modern concept of the artwork and the theories of beauty and aesthetic judgement that underpin it, we will turn to objects from different periods and cultural settings, comparing their present-day status in museums with the roles and meanings they held within the intellectual and cultural frameworks in which they were originally produced. We will ask, for example, what it means to display a Greek vase as a work of art when ancient philosophy did not understand images, objects, or artistic making in the same terms as we do today.

This approach will also provide a framework for addressing a number of pressing contemporary questions, particularly those raised by debates over the restitution of objects held in museums, the status of AI-generated works, and the emergence of NFTs: Who owns a work of art? What determines its value? Who can be considered its author?

Goals

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

  • situate the concept of the work of art within the history of aesthetics and the philosophy of art;

  • explain the historical emergence of the modern concept of the work of art and its relationship to the museum as an institution;

  • use philosophical concepts to interpret works from different historical and cultural contexts;

  • bring philosophical perspectives to bear on contemporary debates concerning authorship, value, and the ownership of works of art.

Content

The course is organised into three main parts.

The first examines the emergence of the concept of the work of art and the aesthetic theories that developed alongside it.

The second offers philosophical analyses of a selection of works and objects, including examples held in Belgian collections. Their present-day status as museum objects will be considered in relation to the functions and meanings they possessed in their original contexts.

The third part focuses on the ways in which the concept of the work of art has been challenged in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Particular attention will be paid to questions raised by technological change — especially digital technologies and artificial intelligence — as well as by the growing importance of decolonial perspectives.

Table of contents

1. The Philosophical Conditions of Possibility of the Museum and the Work of Art

1.1. Introduction: Why We Need a Philosophical History of the Museum

1.2. Kant on Beauty and the Claim to Universality

1.3. Hegel’s Philosophy of the History of Art: The End of Art and the Musealisation of the Artwork

1.4. From Diderot to the German Romantics: The Stakes of Art Criticism

1.5. Heidegger and the Work of Art as a Fragment of a World

 

2. From Objects to Works of Art: What the Museum Transforms

2.1. Imitation or Illusion? Greek Painting in Plato and Aristotle

2.2. The Ancient Statue: Embodiment of Ideal Beauty or Form of Presence? Aristotle and Plotinus

2.3. The Medieval Work as an Organisation of Knowledge: Thomas Aquinas and Panofsky

2.4. The Medieval Work as a Mediation of the Invisible: Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite and Nicholas of Cusa

2.5. Painting as a Window: Alberti and the Construction of the Gaze

 

3. Philosophical Issues in the Contemporary Crises of the Museum and the Work of Art

3.1. The Museum Confronting History — and Its Own History: How Should Museums Address Colonialism?

3.2. Universalism vs Appropriation: Who Owns a Work of Art? The Case of the Parthenon Marbles in the British Museum

3.3. The Work of Art in the Age of Mass Reproduction and Dematerialisation

3.4. Who Makes the Work? Authorship, Genius, and Artificial Intelligence

3.5. Can the Work of Art Be Separated from the Museum? The Paradoxes of a Museum without Artworks and an Artwork outside the Museum

Exercices

Textual analysis of a philosophical text, philosophical analysis of a work of art; argumentative writing; oral presentation.

Pre-requisites

At least one teaching unit among:

  • Introduction to philosophy [DROIB132]
  • General introduction to philosophy [LPHIB105]

Teaching methods

The course is based on a selection of texts discussed closely in class, together with a wide range of visual materials. Teaching is primarily discussion-based and participatory, with the aim of helping students develop an active understanding of both the texts and the philosophical issues raised by museums and works of art.

Students will be encouraged to draw connections between the different texts and materials, to formulate problems on the basis of these connections, and to use them critically within the broader framework of the course.

Assessment method

Students will be asked to complete regular short writing exercises in class and will receive feedback on their work. These assignments will not be graded, but completing them is a requirement for validating the course.

The final assessment consists of an oral examination structured around the following components:

·         a question testing knowledge and understanding of the course material;

·         an argumentative question;

·         a commentary on a text studied in class;

·         a broader discussion based on the preceding elements and their connections with the course as a whole.

Sources, references and any support material

Aristote, Métaphysique, trad. Marie-Paule Duminil et Annick Jaulin, Paris, GF-Flammarion, 2008.

Benjamin, Walter, Le Concept de critique esthétique dans le romantisme allemand, trad. Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe et Anne-Marie Lang, Paris, Flammarion, 1986.

Benjamin, Walter, « L’œuvre d’art à l’époque de sa reproductibilité technique », dans Œuvres III, trad. Maurice de Gandillac, Rainer Rochlitz et Pierre Rusch, Paris, Gallimard, « Folio essais », 2000.

Bourdieu, Pierre et Darbel, Alain, avec Schnapper, Dominique, L’Amour de l’art. Les musées d’art européens et leur public, Paris, Minuit, 1966.

Bourdieu, Pierre, La Distinction. Critique sociale du jugement, Paris, Minuit, 1979.

Danto, Arthur C., Ce qu’est l’art, trad. Séverine Weiss, Paris, Post-éditions, 2015.

Hegel, G. W. F., Cours d’esthétique, trad. Jean-Pierre Lefebvre et Veronika von Schenck, 3 vol., Paris, Aubier, 1995-1997.

Hegel, G. W. F., Phénoménologie de l’esprit, trad. Jean-Pierre Lefebvre, Paris, Aubier, 1991.

Heidegger, Martin, De l’origine de l’œuvre d’art. Première version (1935), texte allemand et trad. française par Emmanuel Martineau, Paris, Authentica, 1987.

Kant, Immanuel, Critique de la faculté de juger, trad. Alexis Philonenko, Paris, Vrin, 1993.

Nicolas de Cues, Le Tableau ou la vision de Dieu, trad. Agnès Minazzoli, Paris, Cerf, 1986.

Panofsky, Erwin, Architecture gothique et pensée scolastique, précédé de L’Abbé Suger de Saint-Denis, trad. Pierre Bourdieu, Paris, Minuit, 1967.

Platon, La République, trad. Georges Leroux, Paris, GF-Flammarion, 2002.

Plotin, Ennéades, texte établi et traduit par Émile Bréhier, 7 vol., Paris, Les Belles Lettres, « Collection des Universités de France », 1924-1938.

Pomian, Krzysztof, Le Musée, une histoire mondiale. I. Du trésor au musée, Paris, Gallimard, « Bibliothèque des Histoires », 2020.

Pomian, Krzysztof, Le Musée, une histoire mondiale. II. L’ancrage européen, 1789-1850, Paris, Gallimard, « Bibliothèque des Histoires », 2021.

Pomian, Krzysztof, Le Musée, une histoire mondiale. III. À la conquête du monde, 1850-2020, Paris, Gallimard, « Bibliothèque des Histoires », 2022.

Pseudo-Denys l’Aréopagite, Œuvres complètes, trad. Maurice de Gandillac, Paris, Aubier, 1943.

Quatremère de Quincy, Antoine-Chrysostome, Lettres à Miranda sur le déplacement des monuments de l’art de l’Italie, introduction d’Édouard Pommier, postface d’Emmanuel Alloa, Paris, Macula, 2017 [1796].

Savoy, Bénédicte, À qui appartient la beauté ?, Paris, La Découverte, 2024.

Thomas d’Aquin, Somme théologique, Paris, Cerf, 1984-1986.

 

Language of instruction

French