From the book
The Gods Are Athirst
Anatole France · Diotimos Editions · 2026
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At a Glance
- The wordL’antique, used substantivally, is ancient art conceived as a model, especially the Greek and Roman forms admired by Gamelin.
- In the novelGamelin tells Élodie that her embroidery is insufficiently simple and bare.
- In this editionThe English distinguishes “antiquity” as an admired model and “after the antique” as a relation of imitation.
- A place to readqui sentait l’école: academic manner without complete originality.
Meaning
Lemma.
L’antique, used substantivally, is ancient art conceived as a model, especially the Greek and Roman forms admired by Gamelin. It is not merely the old-fashioned or a saleable antique object. D’après l’antique means working from those models. His associated terms simple, nu and ligne pure convert formal choices into criteria of moral and civic renewal.
Use in the book
Gamelin tells Élodie that her embroidery is insufficiently simple and bare. Curving knots and garlands belong, in his account, to a petty taste fostered by tyrants; a Greek key, ivy, snakes or crossed arrows would make the scarf worthy of a Spartan woman. The criticism is both an aesthetic programme and an awkward act of courtship. Their hands meet over the fabric he proposes to correct.
He demands the rejection of every artistic legacy of servitude, denies nature and truth to Watteau, Boucher and Fragonard, and predicts the destruction or reuse of their paintings. The exact future date makes the declaration a test of his certainty, not a scholarly forecast adopted by the narrator. His fantasy that Fragonard should be flayed like Marsyas gives punitive force to the language of correct taste.
The narrative’s own evaluation of his work does not follow his hierarchy. The grand tyrant-and-Furies canvas is powerful in one passage but school-bound. A smaller, unfinished Orestes contains more genius and natural feeling, especially in Electra’s tender gesture. Antique subject matter alone is therefore no guarantee of successful art, while a scene derived from antiquity can reveal a gentleness that Gamelin’s doctrine neglects. Élodie’s appearance, meanwhile, is compared both to ancient figures and to Chardin’s domestic painting: living attractiveness crosses the boundary he tries to police.
Places to read
- Chapter II, paragraph 10Frenchqui sentait l’école: academic manner without complete originality. The narrator evaluates the Charon detail, then prefers the smaller Orestes.
- Chapter III, paragraph 12FrenchIl faut revenir à l’antique.: a demanded return to ancient models. His conclusion follows condemnation of the previous regime’s decorative style.
- Chapter III, paragraph 12Frenchla simplicité seule est belle: an exclusive aesthetic principle. Gamelin speaks; retain seule, “only,” rather than reducing his rule to a preference.
- Chapter III, paragraph 26Frenchnulle part la nature ni la vérité: categorical denial of value to rejected painters. Part of Gamelin’s declared doctrine, not the narrator’s verdict.
- Chapter III, paragraph 30Frenchl’écorchât comme Marsyas: punishment imagined as artistic correction. Gamelin wishes exemplary flaying on Fragonard.
Translation in this edition
The English distinguishes “antiquity” as an admired model and “after the antique” as a relation of imitation. “Bare” retains nu without suggesting literal nakedness in every design; “pure line” belongs to the doctrine Gamelin states. The source edition’s identification of allusions supplies context, but the narrative’s difference between Gamelin’s prescriptions and its judgements remains the primary evidence.