Fry's scholarship has been as profitable to me as it has been painful: I have travelled with him through France, Italy, and the near East, suffering acutely, not always, I am glad to remember, in silence; for the man who stabs a generalisation with a fact forfeits all claim on good-fellowship and the usages of polite society. I have to thank my friend Mr. Vernon Rendall for permission to make what use I chose of the articles I have contributed from time to time to _The Athenaeum_: if I have made any use of what belongs by law to the proprietors of other papers I herewith offer the customary dues. My readers will be as grateful as I to M. Vignier, M. Druet, and Mr. Kevorkian, of the Persian Art Gallery, since it is they who have made it certain that the purchaser will get something he likes for his money. To Mr. Eric Maclagan of South Kensington, and Mr. Joyce of the British Museum, I owe a more private and particular debt. My wife has been good enough to read both the MS. and proof of this book; she has corrected some errors, and called attention to the more glaring offences against Christian charity. You must not attempt, therefore, to excuse the author on the ground of inadvertence or haste. CLIVE BELL. November 1913. CONTENTS I. WHAT IS ART? I. THE AESTHETIC HYPOTHESIS page 3 II. AESTHETICS AND POST-IMPRESSIONISM 38 III. THE METAPHYSICAL HYPOTHESIS 49 II. ART AND LIFE I. ART AND RELIGION 75 II. ART AND HISTORY 95 III. ART AND ETHICS 106 III. THE CHRISTIAN SLOPE I. THE RISE OF CHRISTIAN ART 121 II. GREATNESS AND DECLINE 138 III. THE CLASSICAL RENAISSANCE AND ITS DISEASES 156 IV. ALID EX ALIO 181 IV. THE MOVEMENT I. THE DEBT TO CEZANNE 199 II. SIMPLIFICATION AND DESIGN 215 III. THE PATHETIC FALLACY 239 V. THE FUTURE I. SOCIETY AND ART 251 II. ART AND SOCIETY 276 ILLUSTRATIONS I. WEI FIGURE FRONTISPIECE II. PERSIAN DISH 3 III. PERUVIAN POT 75 IV. BYZANTINE MOSAIC 121 V. CEZANNE 199 VI. PICASSO 251 I WHAT IS ART? I. THE AESTHETIC HYPOTHESIS II. AESTHETICS AND POST-IMPRESSIONISM III. THE METAPHYSICAL HYPOTHESIS [Illustration: PERSIAN DISH, ELEVENTH CENTURY (?) _By permission of Mr. Kevorkian of the Persian Art Gallery_] I THE AESTHETIC HYPOTHESIS