Charles Batteux
modernFrench Enlightenment Aesthetics1713 – 1780
Charles Batteux (1713–1780) was a French philosopher and aesthetician best known for articulating a unified theory of the arts grounded in the imitation of nature. His treatise Les Beaux-Arts réduits à un même principe (1746) was highly influential in 18th-century aesthetics and helped establish the modern category of the 'fine arts.'
Notable Achievements
1
Authored Les Beaux-Arts réduits à un même principe (1746), unifying the fine arts under the principle of imitation of beautiful nature
2
Helped systematize the modern concept of the 'beaux-arts' (fine arts) as a distinct category
3
Translated and commented on Aristotle's Poetics and Horace's Ars Poetica
4
Held the chair of Greek and Latin philosophy at the Collège de France
5
Elected to the Académie française and the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres