Michelet et l'utilisation des arts plastiques comme sources historiques - article ; n°6 ; vol.48, pg 1403-1420

Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations - Année 1993 - Volume 48 - Numéro 6 - Pages 1403-1420
Michelet's Use of the Visual Arts as Historical Sources.
Ever since the middle years of the nineteenth century many historians have shown an interest in the evidence apparently provided by the visual arts for an understanding of the past. Although Jules Michelet was among the greatest and most influential pioneers of this new methodology no serious study has yet been made of the ways in which he embraced and then developed it. He himself attributed the birth of his historical vocation to the overwhelming impact made on him as young boy by the vandalised tombs and other monuments which were assembled during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic periods in the Musée des Monuments français. But he relied on his eyes not only for picturesque impressions and the vivid descriptive and necromantic writing for which he is famous but also the exploration of different mentalités and above all for his epoch-making invention the Renaissance.
18 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.