Manet, Velázquez, and Aesthetic Modernism

According to Foucault, "Manet made the Impressionist movement, where aesthetic modernism began, possible." In fact, "what Manet made possible, beyond Impressionism, is the entire 20th-century painting, the art of painting within which contemporary art grew and developed." Foucault also opens his most fundamental work, "The Order of Things," which examines the knowledge-power regimes between the Renaissance and the modern era, with Velazquez's "Las Meninas."

Foucault's studies on Manet and Velazquez, compiled in this book, are not only cornerstones of aesthetic thought but also shed light on the worldview of these two painters in their time. The writings of Carole Talon-Hugon and David Marie, on the other hand, interpret Foucault's text on Manet, elaborating on his thoughts on aesthetic modernism, which he called "the deepest break in art history."