Having, I say,
felt its truth here; for the feeling is no affectation or chimera. The
mathematics afford no more absolute demonstrations than the sentiments
of his art yields the artist. He not only believes, but positively
knows, that such and such apparently arbitrary arrangements of
matter constitute and alone constitute the true beauty. His reasons,
however, have not yet been matured into expression. It remains for a
more profound analysis than the world has yet seen, fully to
investigate and express them. Nevertheless he is confirmed in his
instinctive opinions by the voice of all his brethren. Let a
"composition" be defective; let an emendation be wrought in its mere
arrangement of form; let this emendation be submitted to every
artist in the world; by each will its necessity be admitted. And
even far more than this:- in remedy of the defective composition, each
insulated member of the fraternity would have suggested the
identical emendation.
I repeat that in landscape arrangements alone is the physical nature
susceptible of exaltation, and that, therefore, her susceptibility
of improvement at this one point, was a mystery I had been unable to
solve. My own thoughts on the subject had rested in the idea that
the primitive intention of nature would have so arranged the earth's
surface as to have fulfilled at all points man's sense of perfection
in the beautiful, the sublime, or the picturesque; but that this
primitive intention had been frustrated by the known geological
disturbances- disturbances of form and color- grouping, in the
correction or allaying of which lies the soul of art.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25