From the book
The Gods Are Athirst
Anatole France · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Orientation
At a Glance
- The wordManière is an artist’s or school’s manner of representation; genre may denote a kind of subject or a recognisable mode.
- In the novelBrotteaux sees the hungry queue as a genre painting suited to a modern Teniers.
- In this editionThe edition renders bambochade as “low-life genre picture”; low-life identifies social subject matter, not the narrator’s moral condemnation of the people painted.
- A place to readune bambochade: A low-life genre painting.
Meaning
Related words and phrases.
Manière is an artist’s or school’s manner of representation; genre may denote a kind of subject or a recognisable mode. Style, colour, invention and drawing are distinguished as different qualities rather than one scale of excellence.
Use in the book
Brotteaux sees the hungry queue as a genre painting suited to a modern Teniers. Gamelin grants such scenes superiority over rococo fripperies, while maintaining that only antiquity and its descendants are beautiful. The distinction between ugliness and debasement matters: for him the Flemings make humanity ugly without morally degrading it.
On the excursion the painters discuss masters, schools and separate forms of excellence. When they begin work, their intention to express nature as seen is immediately qualified: each sees in a master’s manner. Dubois produces a Robert-like ruin, Gamelin finds Poussin, Desmahis adopts Callot and Duplessis, and Brotteaux imitates Flemish models. The scene is not a simple contest of artificial art against unmediated natural truth.
Blaise turns recognisable styles into reproducible saleable goods. Overdoors, panels and prints extend the sketches into a market. His commercial judgement and Gamelin’s idealising taste differ, but both influence what the artists are sent to see.
Places to read
- Chapter VI, paragraph 13Frenchune bambochade: A low-life genre painting. Brotteaux transforms the queue into a subject of artistic appreciation.
- Chapter VI, paragraph 16Frenchenlaidie, mais non point avilie: Made ugly but not debased. Gamelin distinguishes visual ugliness from moral degradation.
- Chapter IX, paragraph 45Frenchgravés avec esprit: Engraved with spirit. Blaise’s commercial process turns sketches into profitable prints.
- Chapter X, paragraph 14Frenchle coloris du Corrège, l’invention d’Annibal Carrache et le dessin du Dominiquin: Correggio’s colour, Carracci’s invention and Domenichino’s drawing. Dubois assigns different kinds of excellence to different artists.
- Chapter X, paragraph 31Frenchdans la manière d’un maître: In a master’s manner. The narrator qualifies all the painters’ individual seeing.
Translation in this edition
The edition renders bambochade as “low-life genre picture”; low-life identifies social subject matter, not the narrator’s moral condemnation of the people painted. Fabriques later means architectural features, not factories, and genre de Robert means Robert’s manner rather than a new industrial category.