But without even asking the ordinary man what differentiates the “good”
ballet and the “graceful” operetta from their opposites (a question he
would have much difficulty in answering), if you ask him whether the
activity of costumiers and hairdressers, who ornament the figures and
faces of the women for the ballet and the operetta, is art; or the
activity of Worth, the dressmaker; of scent-makers and men-cooks, then
he will, in most cases, deny that their activity belongs to the sphere
of art. But in this the ordinary man makes a mistake, just because he is
an ordinary man and not a specialist, and because he has not occupied
himself with æsthetic questions. Had he looked into these matters, he
would have seen in the great Renan’s book, _Marc Aurele_, a dissertation
showing that the tailor’s work is art, and that those who do not see in
the adornment of woman an affair of the highest art are very
small-minded and dull. “_C’est le grand art_” says Renan. Moreover, he
would have known that in many æsthetic systems—for instance, in the
æsthetics of the learned Professor Kralik, _Weltschönheit_, _Versuch
einer allgemeinen Æsthetik_, _von Richard Kralik_, and in _Les problèmes
de l’Esthétique Contemporaine_, by Guyau—the arts of costume, of taste,
and of touch are included.
“_Es Folgt nun ein Fünfblatt von Künsten, die der subjectiven
Sinnlichkeit entkeimen_” (There results then a pentafoliate of arts,
growing out of the subjective perceptions), says Kralik (p. 175). “_Sie
sind die ästhetische Behandlung der fünf Sinne._” (They are the æsthetic
treatment of the five senses.)
These five arts are the following:—
_Die Kunst des Geschmacksinns_—The art of the sense of taste (p. 175).
_Die Kunst des Geruchsinns_—The art of the sense of smell (p. 177).
_Die Kunst des Tastsinns_—The art of the sense of touch (p. 180).
_Die Kunst des Gehörsinns_—The art of the sense of hearing (p. 182).
_Die Kunst des Gesichtsinns_—The art of the sense of sight (p. 184).
Of the first of these—_die Kunst des Geschmacksinns_—he says: “_Man hält
zwar gewöhnlich nur zwei oder höchstens drei Sinne für würdig, den Stoff
künstlerischer Behandlung abzugeben, aber ich glaube nur mit bedingtem
Recht. Ich will kein allzugrosses Gewicht darauf legen, dass der gemeine
Sprachgebrauch manch andere Künste, wie zum Beispiel die Kochkunst
kennt._”[4]
And further: “_Und es ist doch gewiss eine ästhetische Leistung, wenn es
der Kochkunst gelingt aus einem thierischen Kadaver einen Gegenstand des
Geschmacks in jedem Sinne zu machen. Der Grundsatz der Kunst des
Geschmacksinns (die weiter ist als die sogenannte Kochkunst) ist also
dieser: Es soll alles Geniessbare als Sinnbild einer Idee behandelt
werden und in jedesmaligem Einklang zur auszudrückenden Idee._”[5]
This author, like Renan, acknowledges a _Kostümkunst_ (Art of Costume)
(p. 200), etc.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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