The collected works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 07 (of 12)Hazlitt, William
General
The collected works of William Hazlitt, Vol. 07 (of 12)
Hazlitt, William
English essays -- 19th century
‘We have still to examine whether sight produces any moral sentiment or
intellectual faculty. It is a common opinion that the art of painting is
the result of sight; and it is true that eyes are necessary to perceive
colours, as the ears are to perceive sounds and tones; but the art of
painting does not consist in the perception of colours, any more than
music in the perception of sounds. Sight, therefore, and the faculty of
painting are not at all in proportion. The sight of many animals is more
perfect than that of man, but they do not know what painting is; and in
mankind the talent of painting cannot be measured by the acuteness of
sight. Great painters never attribute their talent to their eyes. They
say, it is not the eye, but the understanding, which perceives the
harmony of colours.’ Page 158.
This is well put, and quite true; that is, it is the mind alone that
perceives the relation and connexion between all our sensations. Thus
the impression of the line bounding one side of the face does not
perceive or compare itself with the impression of the line forming the
other side of the face, but it is the mind or understanding (by means
indeed of the eye) that perceives and compares the two impressions
together. But neither will an _organ of painting_ answer this purpose,
unless this separate organ includes a separate _mind_, with a complete
workshop and set of offices to execute all the departments of judgment,
taste, invention, &c. _i.e._ to compare, analyse, and combine its own
particular sensations. But neither will this answer the end. For either
all these must be included under one, and exhibit themselves in the same
proportions wherever the organ exists, which is not the fact; or if they
are distinct and independent of one another, then they cannot be
expressed by any one organ. Dr. Spurzheim has, in a subsequent part of
his work, provided for this objection, and divided the _Organ of Sight_
into five or six subdivisions; such as, the _Organ of Form_, the _Organ
of Colour_, the _Organ of Weight_, the _Organ of Space_, and God knows
how many more. This is evading and at the same time increasing the
difficulty. Thus. The best draughtsmen are not observed to be always the
best colourists, Raphael and Titian for example. There must therefore be
a new division of the _Organ of Sight_ into (at least) the two divisions
of Form and Colour. Now it is not to be supposed that these organs are
thus separated merely for separation’s sake, but that there is something
in the quality or texture of the substance of the brain in each organ,
peculiarly fitted for each different sort of impression, and by an
excess of quantity producing an excess of faculty. The _size_ alone of
the organ cannot account for the difference of the faculty, without this
other condition of quality annexed. Suppose the distinguishing quality
of the _organ of form_ to be a certain tenaciousness; that of the _organ
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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