Estetica dei rapporti : L’evoluzione del gusto in Diderot

The entry «Beau» for the Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers has at its centre the complex notion of «perception of relationships», as vast as it is vague and at the same time of fundamental importance for the development of taste, which in the eighteenth century straddles the line between ‘rule’ and subjective ‘whim’. The aim of this essay is to draw attention to the idea of ‘relationship’ and to analyse it in the context of the evolution of the idea of taste in Diderot’s thought.