Violences peintes

Michel Delon : Painted Violence. Diderot appreciated art which encapsulated violence or suggested desire without wallowing in them. The reference to 'flowing blood' indicates a two-fold movement of curiosity and censorship and the two-fold dimension of passing time and the frozen instant. Art should not imitate nature, but it should strike like nature, with its own weapons. Thus it can become sacred without religious alienation. If violence provides the most important scenes, it is because it is dynamic and art is a machine created to multiply force and emotion.
Delon Michel. Violences peintes. In: Recherches sur Diderot et sur l'Encyclopédie, n°18-19, 1995. pp. 71-79.