Images of the Earth, Images of Man
71
cade, and his position is matched by the pair of figures on the other
side of the edifice. In this way, the awesome basalt columns which initially seem to dominate the image are appropriated and cut down to a
manageable size by human vision; and completing this process, a
group of people converse at the very foot of the rock face, seemingly
undaunted by its size and treating it almost as little more than a convenient backdrop to the important business of social interaction. This
framing of the natural spectacle within a primarily social, rather than
scientific context may seem to be at odds with a rational, scientific approach to Nature promoted elsewhere in the Encyclopédie –
d’Holbach’s articles on mineralogy, for example, tend to de-emphasize
the aesthetic and social contexts of rock and fossil specimens and
large-scale natural phenomena in favour of their composition, causes
and uses – yet somewhat paradoxically, it is the seemingly superficial
appreciation of nature’s spectacle depicted here which may itself provide a link between the plates on geological phenomena to those on the
practical arts. Roland Barthes’s analysis of the Encyclopédie plates argues that the vignettes opening the plates on the arts and trades show
the moment of completion and consumption of the product. Such a
reading may thus allow us to tie in the plates on mineralogy with their
more “typical” companions. Following Barthes, this plate reveals the
moment of the “completion” of the natural spectacle through its “consumption” by man.
18 The natural spectacle, while undiminished in size
or impressiveness, is nevertheless open to exploitation by man, and reveals the eighteenth century’s faith in man’s ability to make sense of
and master the natural world and his place within it to his own ends.
Such mastery of nature however, as may well be imagined,
comes for the Encyclopédie primarily from a scientific understanding
of the phenomena involved; and it is such a scientific understanding of
the natural world, rather than an aesthetic appreciation of nature’s
spectacle, which forms the closest link between text and image in the
Encyclopédie. This may be seen again most clearly from the plate on
the Giant’s Causeway and its related article, d’Holbach’s “Pavé des
Géans”. D’Holbach’s article is for the majority a precise and scientific
description of the geometrical conformation of the basalt columns and
___________________________
18 Roland Barthes, “Image, raison, déraison”, in Le degré zéro de l’écriture; suivi de
Nouveaux Essais critiques (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1972), pp. 89-105 (p. 92).
71
cade, and his position is matched by the pair of figures on the other
side of the edifice. In this way, the awesome basalt columns which initially seem to dominate the image are appropriated and cut down to a
manageable size by human vision; and completing this process, a
group of people converse at the very foot of the rock face, seemingly
undaunted by its size and treating it almost as little more than a convenient backdrop to the important business of social interaction. This
framing of the natural spectacle within a primarily social, rather than
scientific context may seem to be at odds with a rational, scientific approach to Nature promoted elsewhere in the Encyclopédie –
d’Holbach’s articles on mineralogy, for example, tend to de-emphasize
the aesthetic and social contexts of rock and fossil specimens and
large-scale natural phenomena in favour of their composition, causes
and uses – yet somewhat paradoxically, it is the seemingly superficial
appreciation of nature’s spectacle depicted here which may itself provide a link between the plates on geological phenomena to those on the
practical arts. Roland Barthes’s analysis of the Encyclopédie plates argues that the vignettes opening the plates on the arts and trades show
the moment of completion and consumption of the product. Such a
reading may thus allow us to tie in the plates on mineralogy with their
more “typical” companions. Following Barthes, this plate reveals the
moment of the “completion” of the natural spectacle through its “consumption” by man.
18 The natural spectacle, while undiminished in size
or impressiveness, is nevertheless open to exploitation by man, and reveals the eighteenth century’s faith in man’s ability to make sense of
and master the natural world and his place within it to his own ends.
Such mastery of nature however, as may well be imagined,
comes for the Encyclopédie primarily from a scientific understanding
of the phenomena involved; and it is such a scientific understanding of
the natural world, rather than an aesthetic appreciation of nature’s
spectacle, which forms the closest link between text and image in the
Encyclopédie. This may be seen again most clearly from the plate on
the Giant’s Causeway and its related article, d’Holbach’s “Pavé des
Géans”. D’Holbach’s article is for the majority a precise and scientific
description of the geometrical conformation of the basalt columns and
___________________________
18 Roland Barthes, “Image, raison, déraison”, in Le degré zéro de l’écriture; suivi de
Nouveaux Essais critiques (Paris: Editions du Seuil, 1972), pp. 89-105 (p. 92).