Foucault’s first major book , Madness and Civilization, is an examination of the evolving meaning of madness in European culture, law politics, philosophy and medicine from the middle ages to the end of the eighteenth century. It marks a turning point in Foucault’s thought away from phenomenology toward structuralism: though he uses the language of phenomenology to describe an evolving experience of the mad as “the other”, he attributes this evolution to the influence of specific powerful social structures.
Foucault’s intellectual indebtedness to Nietzche is apparent in his writing, yet the precise nature, extent and nuances of that debt are seldom explored. Foucault himself seems sometimes to claim that his approach is essentially Nietzchean. It is well known that Nietzche plays a special role in Foucault’s thought, but instead of a lively scholarly interest in the relationship between the two philosophers, one has become accustomed to the somewhat mythical account that reading Nietzche, on a beach under the Italian sun in 1953, liberated Foucault from the influence of the three Hs _ Heggel, Hussrel and Heidegger that dominated French philosophy at the time. Following Nietzche, Michel Foucault, the French philosopher and litetetary critic , puts the foundations of western metaphysics under question and criticism. Accordingly, he endeavors to clarify the various forms of otherness through revelation and inversion of the definite criteria and principles in the structure of power.One of these forms of otherness is madness that, in Focault’s view, is manifested in the artworks of modern era. In Focault’s works, art is centered around three contents. The first one is that artworks can largely disclose the specific intellectual atmosphere of a historical period.Second, artworks can seriously question our mentality about characters. Third, the contents of style and artistic creativity can lead us to a new interpretation of human, who is the subject of experience.For over 350 years,art lovers have been fascinated by Las Meninas.This complex and controversial oil painting is an incredibly nuanced depiction of life in the court of King Philip.The title which translates to Ladies in Waiting, is a turning point in art history for the way in which Velazquez broke from the stiff formal portraits that typically defined royalty.  Perhaps one of the most important paintings in all western art history, this masterpiece continues to influence artists today. This essay tries to give an analysis of Diego Velazquez's masterpiece, Las, which is an evidence for Focault’s first notion. Then, an analysis of one of Rene Magritte’s surrealistic paintings is presented which expresses the specific spiritual ambiance of western culture in 20th century.The artistic madness in Foucault’s opinion and the relationship between art and Nietzche’s Dionysian matter is also clarified by presenting evidences from modern art and specially works of Francisco Goya. Finally, art is considered as a liberating factor from the dominating structures of power.