Art Principles with Special Reference to Painting: Together with Notes on the Illusions Produced by the PainterGovett, Ernest
Philosophy
Art Principles with Special Reference to Painting: Together with Notes on the Illusions Produced by the Painter
Govett, Ernest
Art; Painting
But although the poet or novelist cannot put together the parts in his
description, he may in certain cases present natural beauty to the mind,
his scope depending upon the nature of the parts and the extent to which
they depend upon each other for the completion of the picture. Where the
beauty of the whole rests upon a combination of perfected parts of form
only, as in the case of a horse, then the poet is able to present beauty
of form notwithstanding that the separate parts are in themselves not
beautiful, though the beauty would be that of the type and not of the
individual. The beauty of a horse depends upon its possession of a
collection of features which have each a particular significance. If we
are able to recognize from a description that a horse has qualities of
form and action indicating speed, high spirits, proud bearing, and so
on, and at the same time has a harmonious symmetry in its general
outline, a beautiful animal is thrown on the mind without difficulty. We
readily picture the courser described by Shakespeare in his _Venus and
Adonis_ as a beautiful horse, but we should not be able to differentiate
it from the courser of Mazeppa. Where the parts of the thing described
are in themselves beautiful, then the poet may successfully throw on the
mind a series of pictures of æsthetic interest. Thus, he may call to the
imagination parts of a landscape which are in themselves beautiful
scenes, as for instance a deep gorge opening on to a lake, or a flowery
valley, though the parts could not be put together on the mind so that
the beauty of the whole may be presented.[31]
Summing up the limits of the Associated Arts in the presentation of the
two kinds of beauty, the poet and the novelist can present general or
particular beauty of mind, and general sensorial beauty, but are
powerless with particular sensorial beauty; the sculptor and painter may
present general or particular sensorial beauty, and general, but not
particular, beauty of mind. Particular sensorial beauty may be suggested
by the poet or novelist, by indicating its emotional effect, or by
symbols in the form of metaphor; and particular intellectual beauty may
be suggested by the sculptor or painter by representing the effect in
expression of a particular action, or by symbols in the form of human
figures of beauty.
[Illustration: PLATE 8 (See page 139)
Raphael's Sistine Madonna, with the Face of the Central Figure in
Fragonard's "The Pursuit" Substituted for that of the Virgin]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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