About the book: 1980 / The great French educator and editor of the Encyclopedia Denis Diderot (1713–1784) acted as an art critic and wrote “An Experience on Painting " Goethe's attitude towards Diderot's work was ambivalent. Accepting many of his thoughts, the German writer, however, rejected those provisions of Diderot that tended to defend realism, as the French enlightener understood it. Goethe's criticism is due to his desire to defend and substantiate the principles of Weimar classicism as opposed to the Enlightenment realism affirmed by Diderot.