The Principles of AestheticsParker, De Witt H. (De Witt Henry)
Philosophy
The Principles of Aesthetics
Parker, De Witt H. (De Witt Henry)
Aesthetics
Every experience of art [Footnote: Throughout this discussion, I use
"experience of art," "aesthetic experience," and "beauty" with the same
meaning.] contains, in the first place, the sensations which are the
media of expression. In a painting, for example, there are colors; in
a piece of music, tones; in a poem, word-sounds. To this material,
secondly, are attached vague feelings. It is characteristic of aesthetic
expressions, as we have observed, that their media, quite apart from
anything that they may mean or represent, are expressive of moods--the
colors of a painting have a _stimmung,_ so have tones and words,
when rhythmically composed. The simplest aesthetic experiences, like
the beauty of single musical tones or colors, are of no greater
complexity; yet almost all works of art contain further elements; for
as a rule the sensations do not exist for their own sakes alone, but
possess a function, to represent things. The colors of a landscape
painting are not only interesting to us as beautiful colors, but as
symbols of a landscape; the words of a ballad charm and stimulate us
not only through their music, but because of actions or events which
they bring before the mind. This involves, psychologically speaking,
that certain ideas--of trees and clouds in the painting, of men and
their deeds in the poem--are associated to the sense elements and
constitute their meaning. Such ideas or meanings are the third class
of elements in the aesthetic experience. But these ideas, in their turn,
also arouse emotions, only not of the indefinite sort which belong to
the sense elements, but definite, like the emotions aroused by things
and events in real life. For example, Rembrandt's "Man with the Gold
Helmet" will not only move us in a vague way through the character and
rhythm of its lines and colors, but will, in addition, stimulate
sentiments of respect and veneration, similar to those that we should
feel if the old warrior were himself before us. In such definite
feelings we have, then, a fourth class of mental elements. A fifth
class will make our list complete. It consists of images from the
various sense departments--sight, hearing, taste, smell, temperature,
movement--which arise in connection with the ideas or meanings, making
them concrete and full. For example, some of the colors in a landscape
painting will not only give us the idea that there is sunlight there,
but will also arouse faint images of warmth, which will make the idea
more vivid; other colors, representing the clouds, will produce faint
sensations of softness; still others, representing flowers, may produce
faint odors.
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