Shaftesbury and the classical model

• Main Author: Núria Llorens Moreno
• Format: Article
• Language: Catalan
• Published: Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. Departament d'Art i Musica 2002-12-01
• Series: Locvs Amoenvs
• Subjects: anthony ashley cooper, shaftesbury (1671-1713), antigüedad, antiguos y modernos, arte, teoría artística y estética de la ilustración, clasicismo en inglaterra, siglo xviii
• Online Access: https://revistes.uab.cat/locus/article/view/134

The reflexion on Antiquity and the classical heritage constitutes one of the main pillars of the philosophy of Anthony Ashley Cooper, earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713). This article studies the meaning that the reference to Antiquity attained in his aesthetics and in his artistic theory. Given the extent of the subject, the article has two parts. The first examines Shaftesbury's interpretation of those issues belonging to the contemporary debate on ancients and moderns that have a special relevance to reconstruct his vision of the relation between ancient and modern culture, to understand his adherence to a classical conception of human knowledge, and to comprehend as well his interpretation of some artistic concepts of classical origin that achieved a prominent role in the aesthetics of the Enlightenment, as the notion of enthusiasm or the idea of the sublime. The second part analyzes the specific nature of Shaftesbury's classicism: the reasons of his defense of the adoption of the classical model in England at the early Eighteenthcentury, the main characteristics of his artistic theory inspired in Antiquity and the classical tradition, and the philosophical, moral and political background that guides his conception of art.