The eighteenth-century French philosophe Denis Diderot--the principal intelligence behind the Encyclopedie and the author of idiosyncratic fictional works such as Jacques the Fatalist and Rameau's Nephew--was also the first great art critic. Until now, however, Diderot's treatises on the visual arts have been available only in French. This two-volume edition makes the most important of his art-critical texts available in English for the first time.

Diderot's works are among the most provocative and engaging products of the French Enlightenment. Moreover,...