Œuvres achéiropoïètes

Taking as a pretext the painting, exhibited in 1910 in Paris, that was signed by J.-R. Boronali but in fact painted by the donkey Lolo, this text aims to discuss the possibility that art can be made by non-human beings. The question is renewed today in the case of Artificial Intelligence, which also is supposed to paint and make art without human intervention. This strange coincidence of artistic production involving animals and Artificial Intelligence is then compared to the issue concerning acheiropoietic images, i.e. images that “have not been painted by human hand”, discussed during the Middle Ages. Like these icons, the works of animals and artificial intelligence enjoy an almost divine status, as they are believed not to have been made by any human being. The thesis supported here is that it is still the human being the one who, in any case, produces works of art, however mediated the process leading to the final product may be. Art is the work of the human, i.e. it is “made by human hand”.