Gustave Flaubert’s Style of Temptation in “His Life’s Work”. The Question of Conditioning

Abstract

The article discusses the issue of conditioning the style of temptation of the last, third version of The Temptation of Saint Anthony by Gustave Flaubert. By emphasising the inspiration of the French writer with this figure – an inspiration born already in his childhood and preserved as a result of contact with two artifacts: Bruegel’s painting and Callot’s engraving – the thesis of the “sad grotesque”, a qualitative reservoir of “speaking with pictures”, was considered a determinant of the temptation style in Flaubert’s work. Further considerations were based on what is conditioned by what, namely whether the “sad grotesque” can be seen as the source of the temptation style or as solely its effect, and whether the aesthetic quality determines the type of style, or maybe the style, its specific type, triggers the mechanism of qualitative categorisation? These are the main problems discussed in this article, with the ideas of Maria Gołaszewska (the phenomenon of “temptation”) and Hermann Pongs (pictorial style) serving as reference points. The conclusion, somewhat paradoxical, argues that the aesthetic quality of the “sad grotesque” can determine a specific type of style, and at the same time that the style of temptation is the source of qualitative categorisation of the work.