More Science from an Easy ChairLankester, E. Ray (Edwin Ray), Sir
History
More Science from an Easy Chair
Lankester, E. Ray (Edwin Ray), Sir
Natural history; Science
The mental process of attention results in a certain duration or
memory of the mental condition which is a distinct thing from the
primary retinal impression, and leads to the ignoring or mental
obliteration of an instantaneous interval separating two phases of the
position of moving legs which have strongly "arrested the attention."
Hence, it seems that the most forward pose of the galloping horse's
front legs and the most backward pose of its hind legs--though far
from simultaneous, even in the slow changing retinal impressions--may
be mentally combined by "the arrest of attention," and that the artist
really ought to present his picture of the galloping horse with those
two poses combined (although as a matter of scientific truth they do
not occur simultaneously) in order that he may produce by his painted
piece of canvas, as nearly as he can, the mental result which we call
"seeing" a horse gallop. This combination of the front half of one
figure with the hinder half of another so as to give in each case the
extreme phase of extension of the legs I have made in Pl. I, fig. 12.
But there is, further, in all "seeing" before even a mental result of
_attention_ to the retinal picture is, as it were, "passed," admitted
and registered as "a thing seen," the further operation of rapid
criticism or _judgment_, brief though it be. We are always
unconsciously forming lightning-like judgments by the use of our eyes,
rejecting the improbable, and (as we consider) preposterous, and
accepting and therefore "seeing" what our judgment approves even when
it is not there! We accept as "a thing seen" a wheel buzzing round
with something like fifty spokes--but we cannot accept a horse with
eight or sixteen legs! The four-leggedness of a horse is too dominant
a prejudice for us to accept a horse with several indistinct blurred
legs as representing what we see when the horse gallops. The mind
revolts at such a presentation, though it is true, and the whole
scheme and composition of the artist is perverted or fails to gain
attention and to exercise its charm--by the unwelcome presence in his
picture of the revolting truth. It is the consideration of facts of
this kind which enables us to understand the origin and importance of
what are called "conventions" in pictorial or glyptic art. The artist
is, in fact, operating by means of his painted canvas or moulded clay
upon a queer, prejudiced, ill-seeing, dull, living creature--his
brother-man. In order to give if possible to that brother, by means of
a painted sheet, some or all of the delights, emotions, suggestions,
perceptions of beauty, and so on, which he himself has experienced in
contemplating a real scene, the artist has to present that scene, not
as it really is, nor even as he thinks it really is, but in such a way
that his canvas shall appeal to his brother's attention and judgment
with the same emotional and intellectual result as the scene itself
produced in him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account