Lectures on Art - Selected Conférences from the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, 1667- 1772

"These conférences, documents in the theory and practice of art, were delivered as lectures by the artists and amateurs of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in Paris between 1667 and 1792. French artists discuss what they looked for in a painting or sculpture, the problems they sought to resolve in their works, and how they viewed their own and others' artistic practice--thus revealing their tastes, prejudices, and knowledge about their visual culture"--