The history as a painting: from the pictorial to the textual dimension in the French historiography of the first half of the 19th century

Abstract

The presentation of a “vivid history”, capable of “putting the narrated objects under the eyes of the reader” or the elaboration of a “painting of history”, are recurrent procedures in the French historiography of the first half of the 19th century. However, this investment in the imagetic dimension of the narrative can also be found in the ancient reflections on the writing of history. In this article, the objective is to discuss the possible re-employment in the French historiography of ancient practices and topoi, as it is verified in the notions of ut pictura historia, enargeia and sunopsis. For this, we use both dictionaries and encyclopedias, as well as texts by authors such as Prosper de Barante, René de Chateaubriand and Augustin Thierry. As a hypothesis, it is suggested that the modern narrative device of local colour, that arises between the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, incorporates and expresses the old visual demands of the narrative, at the moment of the conceptual reformulation that characterizes the modern era.