“Liberal Arts” and “Free Arts” in Paris in the Eighteenth Century: Artists Between the Guild and the Royal Academy

In contradiction with the academization of the visual arts and with the growth of theoretical discourse on the “liberality” of painting and sculpture, the legal organization of the Parisian artistic space is still characterized in the eighteenth century by the permanence of the incorporation of these arts within a guild. In this conflict between two different spheres, the intellectual and the legal, institutional negotiations and redefinitions take place between the Academy and the guild. The Royal Academy tries to impose a monopoly on the liberal practice of painting and sculpture, whereas the discourse of the guild of painters and sculptors shows that artistic values have spread in the world of the guild. The birth of new legislation on the liberal practice of painting and sculpture, and the emergence of a consensus on the artistic value of painting and sculpture, do not take place before the “édit de confirmation” of August 1776 and the “déclaration royale” of 1777.