Ancient Greek and Roman mythology and the secular moral discourse in the eighteenth-century France (based on graphic arts)
The purpose of this article is to analyze the problem of the reception of Ancient Greek and Roman mythology in the context of the formation of secular moral discourse in Eighteenth-Century France. The study is carried out by combining the methods of visual studies, historical and philosophical analysis. In the 18th century, there was a specific intellectual situation in France which evoked the formation of secular moral discourse as such. In this context, the view of Ancient Greek and Roman mythology also changed. For a long time, moral discourse was associated with religion, and mythological images served as a system of allegories for depicting virtues and vices. In the 17th-18th centuries, the situation changed. On the one hand, in the comments of clerical scholars to the texts of ancient authors a euhemeristic interpretation of the plots came to the fore in accordance with the general “historical” orientation of the worldview of that time. At the same time, the graphic series tried to preserve the previous tradition where Classical mythology served as a designation of virtues and vices. On the other hand, getting into the context of secular moral discourse, where morality is separated from religion, Ancient Greek and Roman mythology also was gradually changing. This process was also objectified in graphic arts, especially in genre scenes – “history of morals in pictures”.
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