Creative Intuition in Art and Poetry

by Jacques Maritain

Part of The A. W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts, National Gallery of Washington

In this volume Jacques Maritain proposes to make clear both the distinction and the indissoluble relationship between art and poetry. He insists on the part played by the intellect both in art and in poetry, and especially on the fact that poetry has its source in the intuitive activity of the intellect.

In the process of illuminating his argument, Professor Maritain discusses the poetry of Eliot and Thomas, the painting of Rouault and Picasso, the music of Bach and Mozart, the philosophy of Plato, Aristotle, and St. Thomas Aquinas.

Genres: Philosophy, Art, Poetry, Nonfiction, Literary Criticism

339 pages, Paperback

First published March 21, 1953

About the author

T. S. Eliot once called Jacques Maritain "the most conspicuous figure and probably the most powerful force in contemporary philosophy." His wife and devoted intellectual companion, Raissa Maritain, was of Jewish descent but joined the Catholic church with him in 1906. Maritain studied under Henri Bergson but was dissatisfied with his teacher's philosophy, eventually finding certainty in the system of St. Thomas Aquinas. He lectured widely in Europe and in North and South America, and lived and taught in New York during World War II. Appointed French ambassador to the Vatican in 1945, he resigned in 1948 to teach philosophy at Princeton University, where he remained until his retirement in 1953. He was prominent in the Catholic intellectual resurgence, with a keen perception of modern French literature. Although Maritain regarded metaphysics as central to civilization and metaphysically his position was Thomism, he took full measure of the intellectual currents of his time and articulated a resilient and vital Thomism, applying the principles of scholasticism to contemporary issues. In 1963, Maritain was honored by the French literary world with the national Grand Prize for letters. He learned of the award at his retreat in a small monastery near Toulouse where he had been living in ascetic retirement for some years. In 1967, the publication of "The Peasant of the Garonne" disturbed the French Roman Catholic world. In it, Maritain attacked the "neo-modernism" that he had seen developing in the church in recent decades, especially since the Second Vatican Council. According to Jaroslav Pelikan, writing in the Saturday Review of Literature, "He laments that in avant-garde Roman Catholic theology today he can 'read nothing about the redeeming sacrifice or the merits of the Passion.' In his interpretation, the whole of the Christian tradition has identified redemption with the sacrifice of the cross. But now, all of that is being discarded, along with the idea of hell, the doctrine of creation out of nothing, the infancy narratives of the Gospels, and belief in the immortality of the human soul." Maritain's wife, Raissa, also distinguished herself as a philosophical author and poet. The project of publishing Oeuvres Completes of Jacques and Raissa Maritain has been in progress since 1982, with seven volumes now in print.

Reviews

[John Roche · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though there are some magnificent insights on the nature of art and the artist (as well as insights on beauty and imperfection), I did not find this book as well articulated as his previous one, "Art and Scholasticism."

[Erik]

Recommended by James Schall in Another Sort of Learning, Chapter 11, as one of Five Books about Art and Beauty.

[Jabeeeeeen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful writing on devotional art making.