‘If we desire to comprehend the taste or the genius of an artist, the reasons leading him to choose a particular style of painting or drama, to prefer this or that character or coloring, and to represent particular sentiments, we must seek for them in the social and intellectual conditions of the community in the midst of which he lived.’
How should a person judge art? For Taine, no piece of art exists in isolation and the only way to judge an artwork correctly is to understand the social and historical conditions under which the artist lived. The artwork is shaped by the artist but the artist is shaped by the inescapable social and historical context. Therefore, the importance of the artwork is that it represents the essence of the particular historical period and spiritual milieu it was created in. The Philosophy of Art was written under this philosophy and Taine used this philosophy to assess the artworks of Ancient Greece to 19th century Europe.
Hippolyte Taine was a French critic and historian. He was a major proponent of 19th century French positivism and one of the first writers to engage in literary historicism.