The eyes of the army. About the origin of the term vanguard in art theory

Summary

This article holds two main objectives; on one side, to search for the origin of the militarist metaphore of the word vanguard, used to designate the cultural movements from the beginning of the 19th century. On the other side, to lay the necessary grounds needed to disclose the theorical implicances regarding the adoption of this term made by arts sociology. This two approaches lead to equal number of conclusions. First, that the rhetorical operation that allowed the ambivalence of the term vanguard was conceived during those historical moments in which arts and politics found themselves closely related. Second, that the use of the word vanguard in the field of arts surmises more than just a metaphor; it is the artistic movements explicit and consequent assumption of the pathos of fighting.