This is the first chapter from the first volume of Andre Bazin's writings, translated by Hugh Gray. In this text, Bazin traces the evolution of the pictorial, explains relations between plastic arts and death, and explores the dichotomy between realistic image and artistic idea.

Bazin explains two main focuses of visual arts: to mimic the world and to express the spiritual reality. He describes pseudo-realism in art as the direction, ought to "fool" an eye. If the works of Gerhard Richter, mimicking photographic blur and long exposure movement, were analyzed through the lens of Bazin, would they be claimed pseudo-realistic, or maybe pseudo-photographic, if such a term exists? What are the differences between these two terms? If the desire to copy the nature differs from the desire to copy the technically reproduced images? Bazin also states that the invention of photography "has freed Western painting, once and for all, from its obsession with realism" (Bazin, 1960, p. 9). Then why did Richter come back to the realism or photorealism?

Ideas presented in Bazin's text and questions discussed above refer to the broader theme of hierarchies, particularly hierarchies of genres of art and painting, painterly styles and approaches to art in general. Which also raises the question of origins of such hierarchies and who influences and/or creates tendencies in art.

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