A Guide to Eighteenth Century Art

William Kent and others who sought familiarity with art without aspiring to the exclusive, specialist
domain of the connoisseur. Jonathan Richardson, who was influenced by de Piles, sought some
connoisseurial engagement with art (Brewer, 1997, 215–217). Richardson subsequently played an
important role in popularizing through his writings de Piles’ critical criteria, which included the technical
issues of how the parts of a painting relate to the whole, correct drawing, appropriate use of color, the use
of appropriate facial expressions and the importance of producing a plausible representation of a subject
(Brewer, 1997, 276). In France Cochin, who saw himself as the guardian of the values of classicism and
state culture, while often being more flexible in practice, was also keen to comment on technical matters
(Wrigley, 1993, 279).