The translation of La Bible d’Amiens and Sesame et les Lys was a way for Proust to take an interest in religious art, but also to cultivate his own vision of art. Ruskin was for Proust a guide who participated in the support of his artistic self by transfering a certain number of aesthetic conceptions to which his mind would never have been able to access on its own. Proust succeeds in recognizing the decisive dimension of the Christian religion and its implications for Ruskin's aesthetics. Transcending the religious dimension, Proust realizes that Christian architecture, as understood by Ruskin, acquires a meaning other than religious, namely that of a past sublimated by the powers of art. Thus the historical dimension is annihilated in favor of an aesthetic perception of works from the past. Our article therefore aims to show how this experience of translation allowed Proust to deconstruct the aesthetic vision of the author of the translated text, while constructing a vision of art that is his own.

The translation of La Bible d’Amiens and Sesame et les Lys was a way for Proust to take an interest in religious art, but also to cultivate his own vision of art. Ruskin was for Proust a guide who participated in the support of his artistic self by transfering a certain number of aesthetic conceptions to which his mind would never have been able to access on its own. Proust succeeds in recognizing the decisive dimension of the Christian religion and its implications for Ruskin's aesthetics. Transcending the religious dimension, Proust realizes that Christian architecture, as understood by Ruskin, acquires a meaning other than religious, namely that of a past sublimated by the powers of art. Thus the historical dimension is annihilated in favor of an aesthetic perception of works from the past. Our article therefore aims to show how this experience of translation allowed Proust to deconstruct the aesthetic vision of the author of the translated text, while constructing a vision of art that is his own.