The Functions of Art

Anyone familiar with Professor Lowenthal’s Literature and the Image of Man would not be disposed to postpone for very long the satisfaction of reading a new book of his. The present one breaks a good deal of new ground, especially in the eighteenth century. One theme that pervades the book is stated at the outset, in a chapter on “Diversion and Salvation in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries.” Today these themes tend to get stated in terms of producer ...