The Principles of AestheticsParker, De Witt H. (De Witt Henry)
Philosophy
The Principles of Aesthetics
Parker, De Witt H. (De Witt Henry)
Aesthetics
Another means which the artist may employ in order to win us is the
appeal of sense. However repellent be the objects which he represents,
if he can clothe them in a sensuous material which will charm us, he
will have exerted a powerful countervailing force. We have already had
occasion to observe this in our first chapter. Through the call of
sense we are invited to enter and are made welcome at the very threshold
of the work of art. Engaging lines, winsome colors and tones, and
compelling rhythms can overcome almost any repugnance that we might
otherwise feel for the subject-matter. Their primary appeals are
superior to all the reservations of civilization. No wonder that the
stern moralists who would keep beauty for the clean and holy have been
afraid of art! Yet the delight of sense, because its emotional effect
is diffused, does not interfere with the contemplative serenity of
art, as unbridled passion does; it even quiets passion by diverting
the attention to itself; hence may always be employed by the artist.
A good example of the aesthetic fascination of sensation is Von Stuck's
"Salome" in the Art Institute of Chicago. For all normal feeling,
Salome dancing with the head of John the Baptist is a revolting object;
yet how beautiful the artist has made his picture through the simple
loveliness of gold and red!
It would be a mistake, however, to infer the indifference of the
subject-matter in art. The creation of a work of art is based on a
primary aesthetic experience of nature or human life, and not everything
is capable of producing such an experience in all men. The subject
must be one towards which the artist or spectator is able to take the
sthetic attitude of emotional, yet free, perception. Some people are
unable to lay aside their moral prepossessions towards certain phases
of life or even towards representation of them; the idea affects them
as would the reality. For such people even the genius of a Beardsley
is too feeble to create an experience of beauty out of the material
with which he works. Or again, some people cannot objectify their
sensual egotistic impulses and feelings; for them the reading of a
Boccaccio, for example, is only a substitute for such feelings, not
a means of insight into them. It requires a robust intellectual
attitude, a predominance of mind over feeling and instinct, aesthetically
to appreciate some works of art. But for those who can receive it, the
representation of any phase of life may afford an aesthetic experience,
may create a thing good to know, if only it be mastered by the mind
and embodied in a charming form.
The charm of sense together with the satisfaction of insight are
sufficient to explain the conquest of evil by art. Yet further means
have been employed--the special appeals of the tragic, pathetic, and
comic.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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