"Intelligence in the Imagination" Notes on Delacroix's contribution to the history of aesthetic ideas

By means of an in-depth analysis of Delacroix's writings, this article aims to shed new light on the painter's aesthetic thought and, in particular, on one of its most complex facet, that is, the requirement of logic and synthesis in the artistic creation, usually interpreted as expression ofa neoclassicist stance. This supposed Neoclassicism has been considered as a dialectic component against the backdrop of other statements and positions by Delacroix that are close to Romantic aesthetic. The author shows how the categories of Classicism and Romanticism do not explain in any way Delacroix's art theory, whose originality stems from the full appreciation of the expressive means of painting and a deep comprehension of the logic of the artistic expression.