The relation to the model seems to be
fundamental; but in proportion to the success of the artist in making
a likeness, the stone or paint will be made to seem all alive, and for
those who cannot come into direct relations with the monarch, he will
be effectively present in the statue or picture, even when, through
death, he is removed from all social and practical relations. Who does
not feel that Philip the Fourth is present on the Velasquez canvas;
where else could one find him so alive? If the work is artistic, the
spectator's interest will center in feeling the life in the color and
line or sculptured form; that it happens to be an imitation of something
else will become of secondary importance. This is clearest when the
name of the subject is not known; then surely it is the life before
us that can alone concern us. Any feeble copy would serve as a reminder,
but a living drawing or statue brings the man or woman into our
presence. The aesthetic interest in the work as living supervenes upon
the interest in it as a mere reminder of life.
This freedom from the model and attainment of intrinsic worth in the
work of art itself is furthered through the realization of beauty in
the medium of expression. The colors, lines, and shapes which the
artist uses have a direct appeal to the eye and through the eye to
feeling; hence arise preferences for the most agreeable and expressive.
The artist discovered that he could express his emotion not only through
representing its object, but through the very colors or lines or shapes
used in the delineation.
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