Charles Batteux facts for kids
Charles Batteux (born May 6, 1713 – died July 14, 1780) was a French philosopher and writer. He is famous for his ideas about aesthetics, which is the study of beauty and art.
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About Charles Batteux
Charles Batteux was born in a place called Alland'Huy-et-Sausseuil in France. He studied theology, which is the study of religious beliefs. In 1739, he moved to Paris. He taught at colleges before becoming a professor of Greek and Roman philosophy at the Collège de France.
His Big Idea: The Fine Arts
In 1746, Batteux wrote a very important book called Les beaux arts réduits à un même principe. This means "The Fine Arts Reduced to a Single Principle." In this book, he tried to find a common idea that connected all the different types of beauty and taste in art. His ideas became very popular across Europe.
A scholar named P. O. Kristeller said that Batteux was the first to clearly explain a system for what we now call "fine arts." These are arts like painting, music, and poetry, which are created mainly for their beauty.
Later Life and Works
Because of his famous book and his translation of the ancient poet Horace, Batteux became a member of important groups. He joined the Académie des Inscriptions in 1754 and the Académie française in 1761.
He wrote other books too. His Cours de belles lettres (1765) was later included in a larger work called Principes de la littérature (1774). He also wrote philosophical books, like La morale d'Épicure (1758) and Histoire des causes premières (1769). In the Histoire des causes premières, he spoke freely about philosophical ideas. This caused him to lose his teaching job.
His last big project was a long course of study for students at a military school. It was published in forty-five volumes!
Batteux's Theory of Art
In Les Beaux Arts, Batteux explained that the fine arts are like sets of rules for doing things well. He believed that these arts create beautiful things that please people. He said that all fine arts are "in imitation of la belle nature." This means artists get their ideas from nature, but they try to make things even more perfect than real life.
He thought that a true artist needs "genius" to do this. When he looked at poetry, he believed that its beauty came from how accurately, beautifully, and harmoniously each word and line was expressed.
Batteux's Histoire des causes premières was one of the first attempts to write a history of philosophy. He also defended the ideas of Epicurus, an ancient Greek philosopher.
See also
In Spanish: Charles Batteux para niños
