The man who out of the complex disarray of his little world effects a
new harmony is an artist. He who fashioned the first cup, shaping it
according to his ideal,--for no prototype existed,--and in response to
his needs; he who, taking this elementary form, wrought upon it
with his fingers and embellished it according to his ideal and in
response to his need of expressing himself; he, again, who out of the
same need for expression adds to the cup anything new: each of
these workmen is an artist. The reproduction of already existing
forms, with no modification by the individual workman, is not art.
So, for example, only that painter is an artist who adds to his
representation of the visible world some new attribute or quality
born of his own spirit Primitive artisan, craftsman, painter, each
creates in that he reveals and makes actual some part, which before
was but potential, of the all-embracing life.
As the artist, then, wins new reaches of experience and brings them
into unity, he reveals new beauty, new to men yet world-old. For the
harmony which he effects is new only in the sense that it was not
before perceived. As, in the physical universe, not an atom of matter
through the ages is created or destroyed, so the supreme spiritual life
is constant in its sum and complete. Of this life individuals partake
in varying measure; their growth is determined by how much of it
they make their own. The growth of the soul in this sense is not
different from man's experience of the physical world. The child is
born: he grows up into his family; the circle widens to include
neighbors and the community; the circle widens again as the boy
goes away to school and then to college. With ever-widening sweep
the outermost bound recedes, though still embracing him, as he
reaches out to Europe and at length compasses the earth, conquering
experience and bringing its treasures into tribute to his own spirit.
The things were there; but for the boy each was in turn created as he
made it his own. So the artist, revealing new aspects of the supreme
unity, creates in the sense that he makes possible for his fellows a
fuller taking-up of this life into themselves.
It may be said that he is the greatest artist who has felt the most of
harmony in life,--the greatest artist but potentially. The beauty he
has perceived must in accordance with our human needs find
expression concretely, because it is only as he manifests himself in
forms which we can understand that we are able to recognize him.
Though a mute, inglorious Milton were Milton still, yet our human
limitations demand his utterance that we may know him. So the
artist accomplishes his mission when he communicates himself. The
human spirit is able to bring the supreme life into unity with itself
according to the measure of its own growth made possible through
expression.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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