– William Max Nelson –

—

The bourgeois home of Benjamin’s childhood was full of knick-knacks and decorative objects. His favorite object to get lost in was the Chinese porcelain. It was only of export quality, thick and clumsy, but he liked the colors and the texture of the mottled surface.

In the early draft of Berlin Childhood where he mentions this, Benjamin also tells the story of a ­Chinese painter inviting friends over to his house to view his newest painting. Letting themselves into his house, the friends cannot find the painter, though they see the painting. It depicts a stream and a path running through a park toward a tree-shrouded cottage. They find the painter walking along the path to the cottage, turning and smiling at them before disappearing through the doorway.

—

Diderot was the first European writer to make walking into a painting a form of art criticism. He first attempted a pictorial promenade in his account of the Salon of 1767.

Only after many pages of recounting his long walk in the countryside with a priest and two students did Diderot reveal that the entire journey, including the picnic of wine and pâté, was imaginary. The series of paintings that he and his companions walked through were all by Vernet.

—

5