  Du Bos’s account of the striking pleasure that we receive from the fine arts commits him to the ancient view that the fine arts are imitative arts. This view is traceable to Plato and Aristotle and Du Bos acknowledges these ancient sources. Although the view that the fine arts make up a coherent ‘system’ is sometimes attributed to Charles Batteux (Kristeller 1951; 1952), Du Bos’s views clearly anticipate those of Batteux (Young 2015).