A moment of luxury in eighteenth-century France: On Jean-Honoré Fragonard's the Swing

Abstract

The first section of this article offers a conceptual and historical narrative of luxury in eighteenth-century France, moving to an introduction to the main thrust of the eighteenth-century French philosophers of luxury Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Jean-François de Saint-Lambert's endeavor to enhance the understanding of luxury. However, in the second section, attention is paid to the central theme of what I call “a moment of luxury” in eighteenth-century France, the import of the German philosopher Martin Heidegger's work on the concept of a “moment of vision,” and, in particular, my own original recasting of this experience of insight into people's situation as a “moment of luxurious vision.” In the third and final substantial section, as the article's title suggests, the concept of luxury is paramount in my specific contribution, which is less a historical than a philosophical interpretation of Jean-Honoré Fragonard's 1767–1768 famous painting, The Swing, with an emphasis on the artwork as a representation of a moment of luxurious vision. A conclusion is reserved for an evaluation of this philosophical work and my own assessment of its potential impact.