Between Anti-Academicism and the Classical Ethos

Tensions in Eduardo Schiaffino’s Thought

Abstract

This article examines the aesthetic thought of Eduardo Schiaffino in the context of the formation of the Argentine artistic field in the late nineteenth century, focusing on the tension between his anti-academic stance and the persistence of classical conceptions. Based on the analysis of newspaper publications, critical essays, and programmatic texts, it reconstructs the categories that structure his discourse on art. From an intellectual history perspective, it considers the categories and forms of thought specific to his context in order to interpret his interventions. The analysis shows that, although Schiaffino questions the imitation of traditional models and promotes direct observation of nature and individual expression, his judgments are articulated through notions such as beauty, harmony, proportion, and compositional unity. It argues that his thought does not represent a rupture with tradition, but rather a reformulation of its principles, in which the classical ethos functions as a conceptual framework for artistic modernity.