80

Admitting distinctive difficulties when we deal with art objects implies that we do not give in to an empirical temptation: instead of spinning out art in artistic practices, we should give greater importance to its inventive function. The job of a historian is not fully done so long as it remains cut off from a continuous thought on the activating power of art. Such an activating power infers potential topicality of all the art objects. Géricault’s appearance in Michelet’s foreword to the Histoire de France (1869) is proposed as it points out, in an inventive mood (historical and artistic altogether) the permanent intervention of art in and on history.