Art and Scholasticism

Art and Scholasticism is Jacques Maritain’s classic argument for an objective view of both art and the artist. Understanding that the beauty of art is rooted in the transcendental property of Being, Maritain explores how artists must be disciplined by the habitus of their craft if their art is to be of more than ephemeral value. Like T. S. Eliot, Maritain sees the artist as essentially a maker or craftsman and not the vatic oracle of romanticism’s myth. Maritain provides a strong dissenting perspective on the lazy, self-flattering artistic assumptions of the past two centuries.Brian Barbour’s Introduction gives a fascinating summary of Maritain’s philosophical background, his conversion to Catholicism and work in Thomistic thought, and the importance of Art and Scholasticism in understanding aesthetics—be it in poetry, painting, music, or literature.