 Diderot’s efforts as an art writer were based on two complementary beliefs, namely, that the techniques used by a painter to produce various effects are difficult for the ordinary viewer to understand and articulate, and that it is a difficult but vital challenge to capture, through literary language, the significant aspects of a painting. That the painter’s alchemy eludes the viewer’s understanding is something often repeated by Diderot, notably with respect to Jean-Baptiste Chardin: 