§ 44. What the two arts we have spoken of accomplish for these lowest
grades of the objectivity of will, is performed for the higher grades of
vegetable nature by artistic horticulture. The landscape beauty of a scene
consists, for the most part, in the multiplicity of natural objects which
are present in it, and then in the fact that they are clearly separated,
appear distinctly, and yet exhibit a fitting connection and alternation.
These two conditions are assisted and promoted by landscape-gardening, but
it has by no means such a mastery over its material as architecture, and
therefore its effect is limited. The beauty with which it is concerned
belongs almost exclusively to nature; it has done little for it; and, on
the other hand, it can do little against unfavourable nature, and when
nature works, not for it, but against it, its achievements are small.
The vegetable world offers itself everywhere for æsthetic enjoyment
without the medium of art; but so far as it is an object of art, it
belongs principally to landscape-painting; to the province of which all
the rest of unconscious nature also belongs. In paintings of still life,
and of mere architecture, ruins, interiors of churches, &c., the
subjective side of æsthetic pleasure is predominant, _i.e._, our
satisfaction does not lie principally in the direct comprehension of the
represented Ideas, but rather in the subjective correlative of this
comprehension, pure, will-less knowing. For, because the painter lets us
see these things through his eyes, we at once receive a sympathetic and
reflected sense of the deep spiritual peace and absolute silence of the
will, which were necessary in order to enter with knowledge so entirely
into these lifeless objects, and comprehend them with such love, _i.e._,
in this case with such a degree of objectivity. The effect of
landscape-painting proper is indeed, as a whole, of this kind; but because
the Ideas expressed are more distinct and significant, as higher grades of
the objectivity of will, the objective side of æsthetic pleasure already
comes more to the front and assumes as much importance as the subjective
side. Pure knowing as such is no longer the paramount consideration, for
we are equally affected by the known Platonic Idea, the world as idea at
an important grade of the objectification of will.